What are some of the most expensive medications used to treat mental disorders that have to be taken on a daily basis?
I’m going off the assumption that you’re talking about America, home of the not-free healthcare. I’ve taken these prices from https://www.goodrx.com using my location. Prices will vary by area.
All of the following assumes your character is taking the maximum recommended dosage, and all numbers are rounded because math gives Shrink a headache.
The most expensive daily medication (ie. not a monthly injection) that I could find is Aplenzin, an antidepressant, which can roughly cost $125 a pill, which means your character would be spending ~$46,000 a year. Some other notable runnerups are: Emsam (~$52 per patch, ~$19,000 a year), Saphris ($20 a pill, twice a day, ~$14,600 a year), and Rexulti ($33 a pill, ~$13,000 a year).
That’s the raw, uninsured, cash price. Many people who have insurance will not be paying that full price. For instance, one of the Scriptshrink consultants would be paying $300 a month for their prescriptions, but with insurance the monthly cost is only $5. However, insurance is very very complicated and getting money from them can be like getting blood from a stone.
After a certain amount of time, drugs also get ‘generic’ versions. These versions are a lot cheaper, but may have slight differences from the name brand. Another ScriptShrink consultant’s medications, if they were name brand, would cost about $2,000 a month. The generics cost $545 a month (before insurance).
There’s also something called “patient assistance programs” that provide medication at lower cost to people in need, either through a nonprofit or the manufacturer directly. That would significantly reduce the prices.
Another thing to note - it’s really likely that people with severe mental illness take multiple medications at once. Individual medications might not have that big ol’ price tag that Aplenzin et al. have, but the prices stack up.