Contingency valuation and preferences of health states associated with side effects of antipsychotic medications in schizophrenia

The purpose of this study was to investigate the construct validity and the test-retest reliability of the willingness to pay (WTP) method for estimating health state preferences associated with side effects of antipsychotic medication. Ninety-six schizophrenia patients on antipsychotics were asked (1) how much they would be willing to pay to get rid of side effects with 100 percent probability, (2) a standard gamble (SG) question measuring utilities of patient's health state associated with side effects, and (3) their WTP to get rid of side effects based on the utility found with SG. Patients were divided into three groups based on severity of side effects. There was a significant difference between side effect severity groups for (1) the utility associated with side effects (Kruskal-Wallis [K-W] chi-square = 8.48, p = 0.014), and (2) their WTP to get rid of side effects with either 100 percent probability (K-W chi-square = 14.32, p = 0.001) or based on the utility associated with side effects (K-W chi-square = 5.96, p = 0.051). There was a significant correlation between utility and the WTP based on utility (Spearman r = -0.42, p = 0.003). Because of a wide variation in side effects at the 1-month interval, we were unable to assess the test-retest reliability of SG and WTP. Our results suggest that WTP has some construct validity in valuating and measuring preferences of health states associated with side effects of antipsychotics in schizophrenia.