This paper reviews the role of patient preferences within the framework of cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA). CEA typically adopts a system-wide perspective by focusing upon efficiency across groups in the allocation of scarce healthcare resources, whereas treatment decisions are made over...

Objectives: To identify the impact of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) on health-related quality of life (HR-QOL), time off work and the utilisation and cost of health services. Design: A case-control study was undertaken matching patients with IBS and controls. Quality-of-life information was...

Background: A number of new antiepileptic agents have been introduced within a short period of time. Direct comparisons are not available, and information about the balance between costs and effects for these new therapies is lacking. Objective: To introduce a first approximation of the cost...

In a recent leading article in PharmacoEconomics, Nuijten described some methods for incorporating uncertainty into health economic models and for utilising the information on uncertainty regarding the cost effectiveness of a therapy in resource allocation decision-making. His proposals are...

The aim of this article is to consider Bayesian and frequentist inference methods for measures of incremental cost effectiveness in data obtained via a clinical trial. The most useful measure is the cost-effectiveness (C/E) acceptability curve. Recent publications on Bayesian estimation have...