Mental health articles

mental health economic costs Costs of Mental Disorders in Europe and the U.S.A.

Andlin-Sobocki et al. developed a model tocombine epidemiological and economic data on braindisorders in Europe (i. e., EU member countries, Iceland,Norway, and Switzerland). The epidemiologicaldata are based on a systematic literature review of publishedEuropean epidemiology data. The economic costs were estimated usinga _ bottom-up approach, i. e., the cost data were collectedper patient and disease and aggregated to nation al levels with the help of prevalence data (in contrast toa _ top-down approach). The inherent problem of thebottom-up approach is double-counting due to comorbidity.This problem stems mainly of the epidemiologicaldata (e. g., patients suffering from depression probablyalso suffer from comorbid anxiety disorders).Mental disorders (i. e., addiction, _ affective disorders,_ anxiety disorders, _ psychotic disorders) made up62% (i. e. 240 billion e) of the total costs of brain disordersin Europe.

About 50% of the costs of mental disorders are indirectcosts and almost 40% direct healthcare costs. It shouldbe noted, however, that direct medical (_ direct medicalcosts) and non medical costs (_ direct non medicalcosts) were not included in the costs of affective andanxiety disorders.Moreover, the _ indirect costs due toanxiety disorders only comprised lost work days due tosick leave. The authors conclude that their study probablyunderestimates the full economic burden of mentaldisorders in Europe.

In 1996, the United States spent more than $99 billionfor the direct treatment of mental disorders, as wellas substance abuse, and Alzheimer’s disease and otherdementias (the National health accounts was $943 billiontotal). More than two-thirds of this mental healthamount ($69 billion) was for mental health services.Spending for direct treatment of substance abuse wasalmost $13 billion (more than 1 percent of total healthspending), and that for Alzheimer’s disease and otherdementias was almost $18 billion.

mental health economic costs Consequences

The costs of brain disorders will increase dramaticallyduring the next two decades. It is important to find out which systems of care are most effective; existing evaluationstudies could not demonstrate a conclusive effectivenessbecause of missing control groups. Carryingout prospective field studies and increased researchefforts (i. e., better prevention, better diagnostic assessment,better treatment, better health care systems)might be the only way to counteract this cost increasenot only in European countries.

Tags: Health, mental, Mental health