OBJECTIVES: To quantify the cost of schizophrenia relapse in Argentina from the perspective of the public and third party payer. Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling mental disorder that significantly affects a person’s thought processes and emotional responsiveness. Due to the debilitating nature of the illness, people with schizophrenia have a relatively high utilization rate of health care and mental health services. Although there is currently no cure for schizophrenia, treatment is available to manage the symptoms and reduce the risk of relapse. However, poor adherence to treatment remains a significant issue with evidence showing that up to 60% of patients are partially or totally non-adherent to their prescribed oral treatments. METHODS: A cost of disease study was performed including direct, indirect and transference costs of relapses in schizophrenia. Bottom-up and top down methodologies were used to obtain direct costs of health care services consumed by this population. Validation of clinical criteria took place with local KOLs. Burden of disease was calculated using Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALY) supported by the CEPAL. The impact on the local economy was also included by obtaining transference costs. RESULTS: This study estimated that there were 415,870 patients with schizophrenia, from which 87.333 experienced some episode of relapse in Argentina. This corresponds to 21% of patients with schizophrenia. The total potential avoidable direct healthcare cost of relapse, total indirect cost over a 12 month period, and percentage of people not employed due to relapsing disease were calculated and will be presented in the publication.    CONCLUSIONS: Argentinian decision makers in health can largely benefit by controlling relapses for these types of patients. This study is one of the first approaches at quantifying the impact of the disease and its relapse.