The Cost of Pharmacotherapy of Patients with Schizophrenia Hospitalized in Poznan (poland) and in Lviv (ukraine)

Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder characterized by a recurrent course. Schizophrenia generates huge health and economic burdens and requires a long-lasting treatment. Nevertheless, there are still few detailed analyses of costs of pharmacotherapy used in hospitalization of patients with schizophrenia. Thus, the main aim of this study was to assess and compare expenditure related to pharmacotherapy among patients hospitalized in Poznan and in Lviv. Study was conducted between October 2013 and May 2015. It included 50 patients from Poznan and 58 from Lviv hospitalized between January 2010 and January 2011. To compare the cost of pharmacotherapy, drugs were divided into 8 groups. Money values obtained in local currencies were converted to the Euro (EUR). The outlays related to the pharmacotherapy were significantly higher in Poznan than in Lviv. In Poznan atypical neuroleptics were the most expensive group (EUR 9109.49). In Lviv, however, the most expensive (EUR 1026.88) medicines were typical neuroleptics. Adjunctive pharmacotherapy was used in both centers, but in Lviv its use was limited. Of drugs used in adjunctive pharmacotherapy, only benzodiazepines generated higher costs in Lviv than in Poznan. Discrepancies related both with the antipsychotic and adjunctive pharmacotherapy are the result of different health care funding and insufficient budgets, especially in the Ukraine. Access to comprehensive treatment should be the right of every patient, regardless of eco-