By Dr. Petrus Raulino
Mental health in the corporate world
Treating depression and anxiety is important for health and well-being, but it also brings economic benefits.
A study published in Lancet Psychiatry projected the global costs of treating depression and anxiety, as well as the health outcomes in 36 countries for the 15 years 2016-2030.
The estimated costs of extending treatment, mainly psychosocial care and antidepressant drugs, amounted to US$ 147 billion. However, the returns far outweigh the costs.
A 5% post-treatment improvement in absenteeism and presenteeism was valued at US$ 399 billion, and improved health increased returns by another US$ 310 billion.
The figures show a return of around US$ 4 for every US$ 1 invested.
These results show the importance of mental health intervention in the workplace to avoid the negative impact not only on health and well-being, but also on the inevitable consequences related to lost productivity, lost financial resources and increased healthcare costs.
With proper information, we need to fight the stigma that leads to a lack of proper treatment.
Global burden of mental disorders
The occurrence of common mental disorders, mainly depression and anxiety, is increasing worldwide, affecting almost 10% of the world's population.
Mental disorders are the cause of 13% of the entire burden of disease in the world and 32% of the years lost due to disability. Depression is associated with the majority of years lost to illness, mainly due to its chronically disabling nature.
The burden of disease is measured by the number of years of life lost to a disease. It is calculated by adding the years of life lost due to disability to the years of life lost due to premature mortality for a given disease.
Mental disorders have been one of the fastest growing causes of absenteeism due to illness. Evidence suggests that this increase is related to changes in the way society and workplaces perceive mental disorders and their effect on work ability.
Mental disorders are also a major cause of presenteeism, which is a drop in productivity among professionals who are active in the labor market. A depression interferes with a person's ability to perform physical tasks 20% of the time and reduces cognitive performance 35% of the time.
We lose a lot to untreated mental disorders. There are 30% of adults affected by a mental disorder in their lifetime. There is no health without mental health.
References
Vigo, D., Thornicroft, G., & Atun, R. (2016). Estimating the true global burden of mental illness. The Lancet Psychiatry, 3(2), 171-178.
Chisholm, D., Sweeny, K., Sheehan, P., Rasmussen, B., Smit, F., Cuijpers, P., & Saxena, S. (2016). Scaling-up treatment of depression and anxiety: a global return on investment analysis. The Lancet Psychiatry, 3(5), 415-424.
