Cost-efficiency of a brief family intervention for somatoform patients in primary care

Abstract

We sought to determine the cost-efficiency of a brief family intervention program for patients with somatoform disorder. Two hundred fifty-six somatoform patients from 7 centers of primary care in Chile were randomly assigned to either brief family intervention (BFI) or treatment as usual. The experimental group presented a significant cost reduction (p = .001) 6 months and 12 months after the intervention, with lower costs than the control group on all measured variables and no decrease in patient satisfaction. Our results suggest that BFI might be a cost-efficient way of meeting the needs of somatoform patients. Replications in other cultural contexts and dismantling studies to identify the effective ingredients of BFI are recommended.