Decision Science and Health Economics: Applications to Mental Health Services

Decision science is a collection of quantitative techniques for understanding how people make choices and how they can make better ones. While most fields of research focus on producing new knowledge, decision science is concerned with making optimal choices based on the information at hand. Within health decision science, cost-effectiveness analysis can guide resource allocation decisions at the policy level, whereas shared decision making aims to align a patient’s choices with the patient’s preferences. Health economics is a related field that studies how choices made by policy makers, physicians, or patients can affect health care outcomes and costs. Together, these fields are used to inform mental health policy and drive meaningful change in mental health service access, delivery, and outcomes.

The articles included in this collection demonstrate a variety of approaches within health decision science and health economics. Articles in the first section examine effects of different policy changes on access to mental health services. The second section includes articles that estimate the economic burden of certain disorders (e.g., cost-of-illness studies). Articles in the third section demonstrate cost-effectiveness analysis through simulation modeling of mental disorders. Finally, the fourth section offers examples of shared decision-making research with an emphasis on patient preferences. All of these approaches can be useful tools in the provision and evaluation of mental health care.