ABSTRACT
Antidepressant medicines have a major
role in the treatment of depression, and
account for a significant proportion of health-
care costs (Kind and Sorensen, 1992;
Freemantle et al, 1993; Greenberg et al,
1993). The continuing development of
antidepressant agents has increased the
availability of newer drugs that have similar
efficacy but are more expensive than the older
antidepressants (Song et al, 1993). This
chapter addresses the complex question of
whether there is clear evidence that the use of
any single antidepressant or group of
antidepressants is more cost-effective than any
other.
