Hospital management and costs of antidepressant overdose: multicentre comparison of tricyclic antidepressants and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors

Abstract

SUMMARYThere is ongoing debate regarding the relative cost effectiveness of different classes of antidepressants, but there has been little consideration of the cost of deliberate self-poisoning. We examined the cost of antidepressant overdose at six hospitals over a 5 month period and found that the cost of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor overdose was less than one-third that of tricyclic antidepressant overdose (mean cost per episode £173 versus £634). The cost of overdose is often ignored and should be considered in future analyses of the cost effectiveness of different classes of antidepressant.