Provision of cost-effective drug treatment is of particular importance in patients with psychiatric diseases. Most of the therapies in question requires life-long treatment and consists of more than one medicine. Introduction of generic drugs is one of the major strategies for reducing contribution of costs of medications to total healthcare costs. The primary evidence required both by FDA and EMA for marketing approval of a new generic drug is acceptable bioequivalence between the generic drug product and its corresponding reference product. The price of the generic drug is estimated to be 25% lower comparing with the reference product.

In the present study a comprehensive cost analysis of a two-year psychotropic drug treatment in one of high reference Polish psychiatric hospitals has been performed. The total real costs have been compared with predictable costs of treatment with reference products if used instead of the available generic drugs. Our study due to the comprehensive analysis of both the availability and costs of psychotropic medicinal products in Poland.