Costs of psychotropics for outpatients with bipolar disorder in Japan; the MUSUBI 2016 survey

Figures & data

Figure 1. Distribution of daily costs of psychotropic drugs. The X axis shows the daily costs of psychotropic drugs, ranked by every JPY100 (USD1 in 2016). The Y axis shows the number of patients. The total number of patients was 3130; 800 patients were 25.6% of total, 600 patients were 19.2%, 400 patients were 12.8%, and 200 patients were 6.4%. The daily costs of psychotropic drugs ranged JPY0-JPY3245 (mean, 349, median 201–300, mode 1–100). The distribution was exponential. Seventy-four percent of the patients were treated with five drugs or less.

Table 1. Relationship between clinical features and daily cost of psychotropic drugs.

	Percent of total patients (n = 3130)	Mean daily costs of psychotropic drugs (JPY)	Statistic	p
Individual characteristics
Sex (men/women)	45.5/54.5	343/352	z = −0.663	.507
Age at time of survey			r = −0.163	<.001
Education level (junior high s/high s/college/university/postgraduate)	5.0/44.4/8.7/33.9/3.2	299/353/352/349/398	r = 0.044	.017
Occupation (nil/exist)	34.3/65.4	380/332	z = −1.63	.090
Social adjustment (excellent/good/insufficient/poor)	32.2/45.0/19.3/2.8	246/372/444/484	r = 0.263	<.001
Bipolar Disorder characteristics
Age of onset			r = −0.107	<.001
Clinic follow-up years			r = −0.043	.017
Comorbid mental disorders (nil/exist)	80.4/19.3	339/387	z = −3.34	.001
Rapid cycling (nil/exist)	87.5/10.5	329/497	z = −7.46	<.001
Present mental status
Euthymia (yes/no)	38.4/61.6	278/392	z=-10.48	<.001
Depressive (nil/mild/severe/very severe)	49.8/36.2/13.4/0.6	284/381/497/455	r = 0.238	<.001
Manic (nil/mild/severe/very severe)	81.7/15.9/2.4/0.03	353/316/397/450	r = −0.024	.172
Psychotic (nil/mild/severe/very severe)	92.4/7.1/0.4/0.03	340/457/557/450	r = 0.090	<.001
Substance misuse (nil/mild/severe/very severe)	94.6/4.8/0.6/NA	347/368/385/NA	r = 0.018	.313
Suicidal idea (nil/mild/severe/very severe)	89.2/9.6/1.1/0.1	333/461/561/1300	r = 0.147	<.001
Total of the 5 symptoms			r = 0.214	<.001

Statistics: z, Mann-Whitney U test, r, Spearman rank correlation coefficient.

Table 2. Variables associated with costs of psychotropics in the outpatients clinics.

Final (7th) step	Unstandardized coefficients		Standardized beta	t	P
	B	SE
Age	−0.022	0.005	−0.087	−4.782	<.001
Rapid cycling	1.232	0.206	0.109	−5.987	<.001
Depressive symptoms	0.529	0.107	0.109	4.945	<.001
Psychotic symptoms	0.623	0.226	0.051	2.777	.006
Social adjustment	0.537	0.102	0.120	5.288	<.001
Comorbid mental disorders	−0.301	0.167	−0.033	−1.804	.071
(constant)	4.131	0.263		15.707	<.001

Multiple regression analysis.

Data availability statement

Anonymized data not published within this article will be made available by request from any qualified investigators if approved by our institutional ethical committees.