Primary Theme: Brain & Society

The worldwide economic burden associated with caring for patients with schizophrenia has doubled in the last 10 years, from $62.7 billion in 2002 to $155.7 billion in recent years. Direct healthcare costs (inpatient care, emergency visits, medication costs and long-term care) account for 22-24% of all healthcare expenditures.  Patients with schizophrenia are high utilizers of emergency department (ED) services because of relapse, which may be caused by psychoactive substance use, not taking medications as prescribed and/or lack of efficacy of interventions. These patients frequently need inpatient care, but insufficient resources lead to a situation in which patients are often kept in the ED until the crisis resolves, the substances dissipate from their system, interventions take effect or an inpatient bed becomes available.