The following is a summary of “Group psychedelic therapy: empirical estimates of cost-savings and improved access,” published in the December 2023 issue of Psychiatry by Marseille et al.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to investigate group versus individual psychedelic-assisted therapy for clinician time, costs, and patient access.
They examined 2023 data from two trial sites for group therapy, one employing 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment, and the other using psilocybin for major depressive disorder (MDD) treatment. The comparison involved overall variable costs, clinician costs, and clinician time required between therapy protocols utilizing groups and individual patient therapy. Utilizing published literature, the prevalence of eligible adults with PTSD and MDD was evaluated for psychedelic therapy and the time and cost savings for treating these prevalent cases.
The results showed that group therapy yielded a 50.9% reduction in clinician costs for MDMA-PTSD and a 34.7% reduction for psilocybin-MDD, equating to $3,467 and $981 per patient, respectively. Treating all eligible PTSD and MDD patients in the U.S. over 10 years with group therapy would require 6,711 fewer full-time equivalent (FTE) clinicians for MDMA-PTSD and 1,159 fewer for FTE clinicians for psilocybin-MDD, resulting in savings of up to $10.3 billion and $2.0 billion, respectively, discounted at 3% annually.
They concluded that implementing group therapy significantly lowered costs and expanded access to psychedelic-assisted therapies through improved clinician efficiency.
Source: frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1293243/full
