The economics of schizophrenia care in Europe: the EPSILON study.

The public health impact of schizophrenia can be gauged according to a number of criteria, covering: (i) frequency; (ii) severity; (iii) consequences; (iv) availability and acceptability of interventions; and (v) public concern (Thornicroft & Tansella, 1999). Concerning the first three of these criteria, one of the more powerful ways to demonstrate the broad personal and societal impacts of an illness like schizophrenia is to show how disabling it can be, both in absolute terms and in comparison with other health problems. As the latest World Health Report from the WHO (World Health Organisation, 2001) makes plain, the chronic course and debilitating effects of schizophrenia combine to create an illness which imposes very considerable clinical, social and economic consequences on societies throughout the world, resulting in it being a leading contributor to global and regional levels of disability and overall disease burden (for example, 5% of all years lived with a disability in 15-44 year olds, and 2.8% for all ages).