Analysing the cost effectiveness of treatment approaches of dementia demands per definition a set of prerequisites that have to be fulfilled: Both costs and effects should be analysed and some kind of relation between costs and effects should be calculated (e.g. a ratio). There should also be a comparison between two alternatives (e.g one intervention group and one control group). Even if these prerequisites not are controversial, there are today very few published health economical studies of dementia care that fulfil these simple criteria. Most studies with an economical approach focus on costs (e.g cost of illness studies and most pharmacoeconomical studies of antidementia drugs). Although such studies are of interest, they can hardly be used as a basis for priority discussions and reimbursement decisions by drug authorities (or similar). Such decisions demand complete health economical studies. However, we are facing new problems since there is a great need for methodological development in this field. Examples of studies where it has been tried to perform a complete health economical study will be presented. There are indeed more such studies "in pipeline", particularly pharmacoeconomical studies, but there is a great need for methodological improvement and more studies in this field, particularly in the light of the interest and probable future demands from drug authorities.
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