An economic study estimated costs of acute-agitation strategies in China. A modeled cost advantage was not a randomized demonstration of better clinical outcomes.
The modeled comparison
The analysis combined literature and psychiatrist-survey inputs for hospital stay, medicines, electroconvulsive therapy, and adverse-effect management. One strategy paired risperidone with a benzodiazepine.
The base case estimated lower total cost with intramuscular ziprasidone than several antipsychotic regimens, despite higher drug-acquisition cost. Hospital length of stay drove much of the comparison.
Assumptions determine the estimate
When length-of-stay assumptions varied, estimated costs became comparable across regimens. The inputs were not all obtained from a single head-to-head clinical trial.
The findings concerned a hospital perspective and 2017 Chinese costs, rather than current prices or an individual treatment bill. They cannot establish that benzodiazepine use causes a longer admission. Forensic interpretation should separate modeled resource use from measured treatment efficacy and document which assumptions generate a claimed saving.
Source paper
Original analysis of the supplied journal article, identified as PMC6362871.
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