Components of the Economic Burden of Serious Mental Illness in the US
Components of the Economic Burden of Serious Mental Illness in the US
US Neurology, 2009;5(1):10-1
Abstract
Mental disorders impose considerable socioeconomic costs due to their episodic/chronic nature, their relatively early ages at onset, and the highly disabling nature of inadequately treated mental illness. Despite substantial increases in the volume of mental health treatment for disorders in the past two decades, particularly pharmacotherapies, the level of morbidity and mortality from these disorders does not appear to have changed substantially over this period. Improving outcomes will require the development and use of more efficacious treatments for mental disorders. Likewise, implementation of cost-effective strategies to improve the quality of existing care for these disabling conditions is required.
Keywords
Mental illness, costs, efficacy, effectiveness
Disclosure: The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, or the US government. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Received: December 8, 2008 Accepted: March 12, 2009
Correspondence: Thomas R Insel, MD, Director, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, 6001 Executive Blvd, Rm 8235, Bethesda, MD 20892. E: tinsel@mail.nih.gov
As readers of this publication are certainly aware, mental disorders impose very considerable costs on society. This is due to many factors, including their episodic/chronic nature, their relatively early age at onset, and the highly disabling nature of inadequately treated mental illness.
How can we quantify what mental disorders cost the nation? One method, developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), is to use disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), where one DALY is equal to the loss of one healthy life-year. Based on this metric, mental disorders ‘cost’ the US and Canada a total of 6.9 million DALYs in 2001, which corresponds to 7.6 days of healthy life lost for every person in the population that year; this represents 15% of the total DALY burden, essentially equal to cardiovascular diseases as the most burdensome among the 23 categories used by the WHO, and 24% higher than the next largest disease category, malignant neoplasms.1
Another way to determine the impact of mental illness, based on the common ‘cost of illness’ methodology,2 is to monetize the direct and indirect financial costs incurred by society due to mental disorders. In this framework, ‘direct’ costs are those associated with mental health treatment per se (e.g. medication, clinic visits, or hospitalization), whereas ‘indirect costs’ are incurred through premature mortality, reduced labor output (and public and private income support programs, which serve to replace labor income among the disabled), reduced educational attainment, increased incarceration and homelessness, and costs ensuing from the high rate of medical complications associated with serious mental illness. In terms of direct costs, spending on mental health treatment in the US was $100 billion in 2003, representing at least 6.2% of total health spending.3
To read full article please click here
Mental illness, costs, efficacy, effectiveness, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, mental disorders, mental illness diagnosis, types of mental illness, mental illness symptoms, menatal health, history of mental illness,
