Mark van der Gaag1,2, Paul de Bont3, Berber van der Vleugel4, Carlijn de Roos5, Ad de Jongh6,7, Agnes van Minnen8,9, David van den Berg2; 1VU University Amsterdam and EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, Department of Clinical Psychology,, 2Parnassia Psychiatric Institute, Den Haag, The Netherlands, 3Mental Health Organization (MHO) GGZ Oost Brabant, The Netherlands, 4Community Mental Health Service GGZ Noord-Holland Noord, 5MHO Rivierduinen, Leiden, The Netherlands, 6Department of Behavioral Sciences, Academic Centre for Dentistry Amsterdam (ACTA), University of Amsterdam and VU University Amsterdam, 7School of Health Sciences, Salford University, Manchester, UK, 8Radboud University Nijmegen, Behavioural Science Institute, NijCare, The Netherlands, 9PSYTREC Psychotrauma Expertise Center, Bilthoven, The Netherlands
Background: The treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in patients with a psychotic disorder is feasible, effective and safe. But the costs and benefits of trauma-focused treatment (Eye Movement and Desensitization Reprocessing therapy (EMDR) or Prolonged Exposure (PE) therapy) from a health economics and a societal perspective are unknown. Methods: All costs were recorded and both therapy conditions EMDR and PE were compared to the waiting list condition on “losing the classification of PTSD” according to DSM-IV-TR and on “gaining one Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY)”. Results: Both therapies are cost-saving in losing the diagnosis of PTSD and in gaining one QALY. This is true for the health care costs and for the societal costs. Detailed outcomes will be presented at the conference. Discussion: The treatment of PTSD in people with psychosis has now been recommended in guidelines as being effective and safe. Policymakers, health care providers and insurance companies are encouraged to implement the therapies as they are also cost-saving in most cases, even in the short term of six months.
