Data directly comparing healthcare costs for our bipolar sample and similarly aged children, or even subgroups of patients with other chronic conditions, is not readily available. One example of comparison data for a similar population comes from a study of children with diabetes. This study assessed the total average annual costs of diabetes treatment in 2007 using the MarketScan insurance claims data and found that youth with diabetes had $9,061 average annual total expenditures, while youth without diabetes had expenditures of only $1,468.(38) In contrast to these estimates, average annual total costs for youth with bipolar disorder in the present study were $10,372 (in 2007 dollars), with much of this cost attributed to mental health related spending. Costs for non-mental health treatments among children with bipolar disorder in our sample were also higher than costs estimated for children without diabetes. Reasons for this may include more frequent health care utilization or possibly increased physical comorbidities associated with treating bipolar disorders (e.g., metabolic conditions developing subsequent to second-generation antipsychotic use).
