Research Article Resource Utilisation and Costs of Depressive Patients in Germany: Results from the Primary Care Monitoring for

Copyright © 2014 Christian Krauth et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. Depression is the most common type of mental disorder in Germany. It is associated with a high level of suffering for individuals and imposes a significant burden on society. The aim of this study was to estimate the depression related costs in Germany taking a societal perspective.Materials andMethods.Data were collected from the primary caremonitoring for depressive patients trial (PRoMPT) of patients with major depressive disorder who were treated in a primary care setting. Resource utilisation and days of sick leave were observed and analysed over a 1-year period. Results. Average depression related costs of C3813 were calculated. Significant differences in total costs due to sex were demonstrated. Male patients had considerable higher total costs than female patients, whereas single cost categories did not differ significantly. Further, differences in costs according to severity of disease and age were observed. The economic burden to society was estimated at C15.6 billion per year. Conclusion. The study results show that depression poses a significant economic burden to society.There is a high potential for prevention, treatment, and patient management innovations to identify and treat patients at an early stage. 1. Background Depression is the most common type of mental disorde