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Ulf Gerdtham. Photo.

Ulf Gerdtham

Professor

Ulf Gerdtham. Photo.

Economic evaluation of mindfulness group therapy for patients with depression, anxiety, stress and adjustment disorders compared with treatment as usual

Author

  • Sanjib Saha
  • Johan Jarl
  • Ulf-G Gerdtham
  • Kristina Sundquist
  • Jan Sundquist

Summary, in English

BACKGROUND: A randomised controlled trial found that a structured mindfulness group therapy (MGT) programme was as effective as treatment as usual (mostly cognitive-behavioural therapy) for patients with a diagnosis of depression, anxiety or stress and adjustment disorders in Sweden (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01476371).AimsTo perform a cost-effectiveness analysis of MGT compared with treatment as usual from both a healthcare and a societal perspective for the trial duration (8 weeks).

METHOD: The costs from a healthcare perspective included treatment as usual, medication and costs for providing MGT. The societal perspective included costs from the healthcare perspective plus savings from productivity gains for the trial duration. The effectiveness was measured as quality-adjusted life-years (QALY) using the EQ-5D-5L questionnaire and the UK value set. Uncertainty surrounding the incremental costs and effects were estimated using non-parametric bootstrapping with 5000 replications and presented with 95% confidence intervals and cost-effectiveness acceptability curves.

RESULTS: The MGT group had significantly lower healthcare and societal costs (mean differences -€115 (95% CI -193 to -36) and -€112 (95% CI -207 to -17), respectively) compared with the control group. In terms of effectiveness, there was no significant difference in QALY gain (mean difference -0.003, 95% CI -0.0076 to 0.0012) between the two groups.

CONCLUSIONS: MGT is a cost-saving alternative to treatment as usual over the trial duration from both a healthcare and a societal perspective for patients with a diagnosis of depression, anxiety or stress and adjustment disorders in Sweden.Declaration of interestNone.

Department/s

  • Health Economics
  • Department of Economics
  • Centre for Economic Demography
  • EpiHealth: Epidemiology for Health
  • Family Medicine, Cardiovascular Epidemiology and Lifestyle
  • Family Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology

Publishing year

2020-04

Language

English

Pages

197-203

Publication/Series

British Journal of Psychiatry

Volume

216

Issue

4

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Topic

  • Health Care Service and Management, Health Policy and Services and Health Economy

Status

Published

Research group

  • Health Economics
  • Family Medicine, Cardiovascular Epidemiology and Lifestyle
  • Family Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0007-1250