Depression. How Much Would You Pay to be Rid of it?

A paper was published on PubMed yesterday, titled Patient preferences for depression treatment programs and willingness to pay for treatment.

It raises the question of how much people with severe depression would pay to eliminate their illness. With or without side-effects. Very interesting question!

A quick, birds-eye view of the study, and then on to my own questions.

Firstly, the purpose of the study isn’t entirely theoretical; amongst other things it assesses individual preferences for different treatment programs, and examines the effects of depression on the pleasure derived from consuming goods (a major concern for our economy centered societies).

The survey was conducted with 104 individuals recently diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder. These respondents indicated their preferred treatment choices according to an array of options: hours of psychotherapy per month, use of anti-depressants, cost of treatments, side effects (weight gain, loss of interest in sex, inability to orgasm) and no treatment.

The study found a willingness to pay a large amount to eliminate depression, but the amount fell substantially in the absence of, or with much reduced, side effects. The study also found that depression has a negative impact on pleasure from consumption which worsens with severity, as you would expect.

The study concludes that willingness to pay should be included in any cost-benefit analysis of how additional resources can be allocated to treatment alternatives, and that the kind of estimates gathered from the survey could provide a process for better matching treatment programs to patients.

These are the two questions that I’m compelled to ask you:
“How much would you give up to get rid of depression?” and
“How much would you have to be given to keep it?”

I need a day or two to think about this!

Tags: depression treatment, patient preferences, preferred treatment, side effects, treatment alternatives, treatment choices