Socio-Economic Costs of Affective Disorders in Romania
Socio-Economic Costs of Affective Disorders in Romania

Author(s): Valentin Marian Antohi, Florin Marian Buhociu, Daniela Gabriela Glăvan, Cristina Cotocel, Mihail Cristian PIRLOG
Subject(s): Economy
Published by: Editura Lumen, Asociatia Lumen
Keywords: affective disorders; direct costs; burden of disease; social impact; healthcare system
Summary/Abstract: The Romanian healthcare system is financed through public and private resources, the main source of public income for healthcare being the healthcare social insurance contribution, and the healthcare expense has grown constantly in the last decades. The highest costs in the health care system are those with primary, secondary and tertiary health care, affective disorders being treated in all these levels. Depression, the most common major psychiatric disorder, has an important burden of disease, involving a wide spectrum of disabilities and huge social and economic costs. Bipolar disorder leads also to an important impact on quality of life and a considerable economic burden. Our research analyzed, on a period of three years, the economic impact represented by direct cost of affective disorders, and efficiency indicators of the Romanian health-care system in this field on a sample of 236 health care institutions. Both number of patients and hospitalization days for affective disorders were decreasing, but these diseases still cause significant human and long-term costs. The direct cost per patient exceeds the national average every year. These costs associated with affective disorders and their impact contribute to the estimation of the health determinants.

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