Economic aspects of psychotherapy - a systematic survey of the literature

Economic evaluations have become more and more important in the somatotherapeutic field. This survey's objective was to examine if the current economic evaluation techniques can be applied to psychotherapy. 8 data banks, 17 key words from the psychotherapeutic field and 14 economic key words were used,the identified original studies were classified in accordance with Drummond, the methodical quality of each study was assessed at a score between 0 and 10 points. 21 studies were found: 16 cost-benefit analyses, 4 cost-effectiveness analyses and one cost-utility analysis. The quality of the representation of the clinical results (mean value 8.6) was better than that of the economic results (mean value 6.1). It was perfectly possible to evaluate psychotherapeutic interventions with regard to economic aspects by means of the current techniques but in most cases there was a considerable lack of quality in both representation and calculation. Furthermore the evaluation type of cost-utility analysis, which is the only one that takes quality of life aspects into consideration and therewith seems to be the most appropriate approach regarding the psychotherapeutic field, has been greatly ignored.