OBJECTIVES: The goal of our research was to assess and calculate the costs of antipsychotic treatment of schizophrenia patients in Hungary, using the database of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF). Based on the results of a recently published study using real world data (Bitter et al. 2013.) we focused especially on the costs linked to the early medication discontinuation and poor adherence of schizophrenia patients.   METHODS: In Hungary all medicines which are purchased with reimbursement are documented in the centralized register of the NHIF since 1998. We analyzed the Payer’s database taking into account the time to treatment discontinuation results of the Bitter et al. study.  We calculated the yearly average costs of schizophrenia treatment both per patient, and both per substance between 2006 and 2012. RESULTS: Our findings indicate that in the assessed time period an average yearly amount of approximately €5,5 million (calculation based on yearly average EUR/HUF exchange rates) is spent on second generation antipsychotics, which are prescribed and purchased with reimbursement but finally not used by the patients due to early medication discontinuation.  Based on our calculations, the average yearly treatment costs of antipsychotics increased from €612 (2006) to €974 (2012) per patient in the assessed time period. The analysis of the NHIF database resulted, that the average yearly expenditure on different antipsychotics, varied between €173 and €2420 per patient. CONCLUSIONS: All-cause medication discontinuation is a major concern in the treatment of schizophrenia both from a clinical and both from a health economic perspective.  In order to ensure resources are spent cost-effectively, it is crucial to identify methods which can improve treatment continuation and adherence of schizophrenia patients in the future.