An examination of the relationship between non-depression-related costs and uninterrupted Tx

Depression is an important disease for many managed care organizations and can be one of the largest cost drivers in their drug budget. A number of studies have focused on the cost impact of anti-depressant treatment. One previously published study showed that significant savings in office-based service costs was likely in patients who completed at least 6 months of antidepressant therapy. The purpose of this study was to determine if these results could be replicated in another managed care population. The methodology from the previously published study was adopted as a framework for this analysis. No analyses in the current study demonstrated that uninterrupted antidepressant treatment was associated with a large reduction in non-depression-related costs.