Economic costs of anxiety disorders

✍ Scribed by Robert L. DuPont; Dorothy P. Rice; Leonard S. Miller; Sarah S. Shiraki; Clayton R. Rowland; Henrick J. Harwood

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 650 KB
• Volume: 2
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1070-9797
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1522-7154(1996)2:4<167::aid-anxi2>3.0.co;2-l

✦ Synopsis

Anxiety disorders are estimated to aflect 26.9 million individuals in the United States at some point during their lives. This study used the human capital approach to estimate the direct and indirect costs of these highly prevalent disorders. In 1990, costs associated with anxiety disorders were $46.6 billion, 31.5% of total expenditures for mental illness. Less than one-quarter of costs associated with anxiety disorders were for direct medical treatment; over three-quarters were attributable to lost or reduced productivity. Most of these indirect costs were associated with morbidity, as mortality accounted fbr just 2.7% of the total. Greater availability of ge'ective, relatively low-cost outpatient treatment could substantially reduce the economic and social burden of these common and ofen crippling disorders. Anxiety 2: 167-172 (1996).