Cost of epilepsy in the Russian Federation

Abstract

Background. Epilepsy underdiagnosis in Russia, population aging, innovative drugs and expensive treatment regimens, the introduction of additional and alternative methods such as neurosurgery, annually increase the cost for treatment of epilepsy patients. In this regard, an issue of maximizing benefits for the largest number of the population becomes relevant. Pharmacoeconomical research within the assessment of healthcare technologies helps to choose the most economically and medically effective treatment strategy among numerous alternatives.Objective: analysis of epilepsy-associated costs in the Russian Federation, aimed at supporting decision-making processes in the field of health policy and financing.Material and methods. The empirical study was based on collecting the data on a continuous sampling of 384 epilepsy outpatient records from subjects aged 19 to 79 years for the period 2019–2022. The issues related to all costs of epilepsy were discussed. While planning, conducting and analyzing these studies, the principles of strengthening the reporting of observational studies in epidemiology (STROBE) were taken into account.Results. The total annual per-patient expenditure on epilepsy treatment comprised a fifth of gross domestic product per capita. Indirect costs exceed direct cost savings. It was found out that the economic damage caused to society, family, and individual related to epilepsy is three times higher than the direct costs.Conclusion. The results obtained are consistent with other publications in which unemployment among epilepsy patients is one of the major cost-determining factors and illustrates a critical need to maintain employment for such patients or to find suitable alternative work through professional retraining.

Keywords

• epilepsy
• direct costs
• indirect costs
• cost-of-illness analysis
• health technology assessment