The high proportion of drug therapeutic failures leading to an admission highlights the need for public education, particularly to prevent non-compliance.

A specific value set is now available to calculate QALYs for the conduction of health economic studies targeted at the Italian health care system.

Wellbeing and loss of productivity are the most important consequences in these patients. Appropriate treatment is necessary to improve patient health and productivity, which will contribute to reducing societal costs.

The objective of this study was to assess the cost of caring for patients with psoriasis in Italy according to the AISP study (Associazione Italiana Studi Psoriasi or Italian Association for Studies on Psoriasis), involving 104 university and hospital centres and 7992 patients in 1994. The mean yearly cost of care for a single patient was calculated at 905 Euros. Hospitalization accounted for more than four-fifths of the costs, therapy for about one-eighth (systemic therapies were the most expensive) and office visits and day hospitals for the remainder. In our study series less than 20% of patients accounted for more than 90% of the total costs.

Chronic hand eczema is frequent among patients with hand eczema accessing dermatology centres. Many patients were severe and refractory to standard therapy. The appropriate identification of hand eczema is the first step in implementing effective and efficient treatments.

approximately 31.926 MS patients in Turkey. The direct costs including diagnosis, treatment of MS attacks and symptoms, for RRMS, PPMS, SPMS are found to be 705.745.333 TRY (~134 mEUR) in total for the payer. Medicines make only 61% of this direct burden of illness in MS. The indirect costs and economic losses caused by loss of productivity due to MS, are consisting of factors such as absenteeism, early retirement, early death, and cost of caregivers, which is a service required by most MS patients, and indirect costs sum up to 1.879.454.246 TRY (~358 mEUR) for the society. CONCLUSIONS: Cost studies provide an evidence-based guidance for decision-makers. Direct and indirect costs can be analyzed for a comprehensive evaluation of budget impact and comparison of alternative medicines. Innovative medicines in the field of MS prevent disease progression and hence it can be expected that these are going to result in an overall public benefit in the future.

The objective of this study was to assess the cost of caring for patients with psoriasis in Italy according to the AISP study (Associazione Italiana Studi Psoriasi or Italian Association for Studies on Psoriasis), involving 104 university and hospital centres and 7992 patients in 1994. The mean yearly cost of care for a single patient was calculated at 905 Euros. Hospitalization accounted for more than four-fifths of the costs, therapy for about one-eighth (systemic therapies were the most expensive) and office visits and day hospitals for the remainder. In our study series less than 20% of patients accounted for more than 90% of the total costs.

No abstract