OBJECTIVES Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is an inflammatory arthritis occurring in about 10-30% of the patients with psoriasis. Registration of highly effective but costly biological drugs for the treatment of PsA gave an extra impulse to economic evaluations in rheumatology. There are no data on cost-of-illness of PsA neither from Hungary nor from countries with similar economic status (i.e. Poland, Slovakia and Czech Republic). The main goal of present study was to collect data on disease burden and costs of patients with PsA in Hungary. METHODS A cross sectional questionnaire survey of consecutive patients aged ≥18 years with diagnosis of PsA was conducted in 8 hospital based rheumatology outpatient centres in Hungary in 2008. Data were collected by rheumatologists during routine outpatient visits. Observed variables were demographic data, disease duration, disease activity score (DAS28), psoriasis area severity index (PASI), drug use, the use of aids and devices, imaging, gastroscopy, outpatient visit, admissions to hospital, orthopaedic surgery, spa, physiotherapy, home care, transportation, non-reimbursed health care services, home remodelling and informal care. Data on PsA related reduction of working hours, sick leave and disability pension were collected also. RESULTS A total of 183 patients were enrolled, of these, 104 (57%) were women. The mean age of the sample was 50.3 (SD 12.9) years and the mean disease duration was 9.2 (9.2) years. The annual average direct, indirect and total costs were 2 670, 2 904 and 5 574 euros/patient/year in PsA, respectively. The main cost domains were the productivity losses due to work disability (49%) and the costs of biologic therapies (18%), with 2 742 (SD 4 920) and 1 008 (SD 4 134) euros/patient/year, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Our study showed that the economic burden of PsA is considerable in Hungary and provided a baseline to evaluate the economic effect of treatments in PsA.