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Treatment costs and clinical outcome for first episode schizophrenia patients: a 3‐year follow‐up of the Swedish ‘Parachute Project’ and Two Comparison Groups
Author(s) -
Cullberg J.,
Mattsson M.,
Levander S.,
Holmqvist R.,
Tomsmark L.,
Elingfors C.,
Wieselgren I.M.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.2006.00788.x
Subject(s) - schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , prospective cohort study , psychiatry , positive and negative syndrome scale , medicine , outcome (game theory) , psychosis , physical therapy , pediatrics , surgery , mathematics , mathematical economics
Objective: To evaluate ‘need‐specific treatment’ of first episode schizophrenia syndrome patients. Method: Sixty‐one consecutive first episode schizophrenia syndrome patients were followed over 3 years. They were compared with a Historical ‘treatment as usual’ group ( n = 41) and a Prospective group from a high quality social and biological psychiatry centre ( n = 25). Results: Symptomatic and functional outcome was significantly better compared with the Historical group and equal with the Prospective group. During the first year, the direct costs for in‐ and out‐patient care per patient in the Parachute project were less than half of those in the Prospective group. Conclusion: The study confirms the feasibility, clinically and economically, with a large scale application of ‘need‐specific treatments’ for first episode psychotic patients.