ABSTRACT
Examining the costs, the benefits, and the effec tiveness of therapeutic technologies is essential to the decision making process about which thera pies to use in which types of patients. The clear est example occurs when two therapies or technologies are equivalent in terms of effective ness but differ in terms of cost. The decision as to which therapy to use can then be based primarily on the cost. However, in reality, decisions are not so clear-cut. Therapies are rarely equivalent in terms of effectiveness. Costs analyses differ by the type of costs that are included (e.g. direct medical costs, direct non-medical costs, indirect costs, intangible costs), the perspective of the payer, and whether the researchers use cost iden tification, cost-effectiveness, cost-utility, or costbenefit analyses. This chapter helps clinical researchers to understand better the differences in cost analyses and identifies specific analyses that have been conducted for multiple sclerosis (MS).
