PMID: 16633202Apr 25, 2006Paper

Is ECT cost-effective? A critique of the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence's report on the economic analysis of ECT

The Journal of ECT
William M McDonald

Abstract

The report of the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) on the economic analysis of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) concludes that ECT and pharmacotherapy are "likely to be equally cost-effective" in the treatment of major depression. However, this economic analysis is acknowledged by the NICE report to be "crude and based on a number of uncertain assumptions." An evaluation by the Health Technology Assessment Committee of the National Coordinating Centre for Health Technology Assessment, commissioned and funded on behalf of NICE, provides a detailed cost comparison of ECT and pharmacotherapy in the treatment of major depression [Greenhalgh, Health Technol Assess, 9 (9) (2005) 1-156]. The Health Technology Assessment Committee analyzed data from separate studies of the efficacy of antidepressants and ECT. However, these data included few randomized controlled trials directly comparing the cost-effectiveness of ECT and medication in treatment-resistant depression. In the limited number of trials included in the report, there was a bias in favor of medication. For example, compared with the antidepressant trials, the ECT trials included more patients who had comorbid psychosis and treatment-resistant depress...Continue Reading

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Citations

May 17, 2013·Clinical Psychopharmacology and Neuroscience : the Official Scientific Journal of the Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology·Yuki TokutsuJun Nakamura
May 19, 2016·The Journal of ECT·William M McDonaldW Vaughn McCall

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