Análisis coste-efectividad de escitalopram comparado con citalopram en el tratamiento de pacientes con depresión mayor grave

Abstract

Objective: To undertake a cost-effectiveness analysis of escitalopram versus citalopram for the treatment of severe depression.Method: A decision tree model of the severe depression treatment has been adapted to the Spanish context. The model represents the standard treatment patterns in Spain for the study population. The time horizon of the model is 6 months and it computes estimates of the cost per patient with remission (successfully treated). The effectiveness data for the model come from a randomised trial. The current treatment patterns have been established according to the indications of a group of medical experts. The health system perspective was adopted for the analysis and the year for the cost data was 2005.Results: The cost per controlled patient is 951 € with escitalopram and 992 € with citalopram. The incremental cost per succesfully treated patient with escitalopran compared to citalopram is 353 €. The sensitivity analyses show that these results were robust.Conclusion: Escitalopram is a more efficacious treatment compared to citalo-pram and presents a profile of efficiency whose additional costs with respect to the average costs of the treatments per remision with citalopram are lower; thus the utilisation of escitalopram would be underpinned from the economic perspective.