This article contrasts trends in addressing work productivity in severe mental illnesses (SMI) such as schizophrenia and in affective disorders. Citations from searches of 8 reference databases were reviewed. The negative impact of SMI on employment is indisputable, as is the fact that people...

Objective: To investigate the impact of epilepsy in Italy on healthcare resources, producing an average cost per patient per year of follow-up. Design and setting: The Episcreen Project is a multicentre longitudinal Italian observational study; its methodology, organisational network and case...

Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease of unknown aetiology which affects around 35 000 people in the UK (population 56.8 million). The potential for onset in early adult life, disease chronicity and a need for hospitalisation and surgery mean that the disease can be associated...

Objective: To estimate the cost of lost work days due to ischaemic heart disease (IHD), and the cost of this reduced productivity using reduction in household income. Design and setting: Using 2 years of nationally representative observational data, this study examined the effect on household...

The effectiveness of drug treatment in clinical practice is considerably lower than the efficacy shown in controlled studies. The lower effectiveness in practice presumably leads to lower cost effectiveness of drug treatment in real-life situations compared with that demonstrated by studies...

With limited financial resources available, it is now becoming more acceptable to evaluate medical innovations in terms of incremental economic value. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of enteroviral meningitis and to summarise the economic literature to identify relevant costs...

It has been suggested that the annual direct costs for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are now around $US41 billion in the 8 most industrialised countries. This paper reviews the data on calculations of direct costs. The true economic burden is unclear, as there are insufficient data on indirect...

With increasing chronic disease and disability burden as a result of the aging of populations worldwide, cost estimates of disease and disability are important in determining: 1. the most cost-effective methods in delivering healthcare in order to maximise resources; and 2. health policies and...

Objective: Cost-of-illness studies have been completed on scores of diseases over the past 30 years. The goal of this study was to review published cost-of-illness studies on US populations in order to evaluate the potential usefulness of the results in decision making. Methods: Medline and...

Migraine is a common disorder characterised by recurrent episodes of disability. Despite the high prevalence of migraine, data have been lacking on its impact in a working population. The advent of new therapies has stimulated interest in this area, and evidence is now available that documents...