Depression costing billions
Depression and stress are costing taxpayers £13 billion a year, according to new research.
They are now the most common reason for taking long-term sick leave, resulting in the loss of an estimated 176 million working days in 2003, up ten million on the year before.
Researchers from King’s College London found that anxiety and depression have overtaken musculoskeletal conditions such as back pain as the most common reasons for claiming long-term sickness benefits.
This backed up by data from the Department of Work and Pensions, which suggests about 35 per cent of people claiming incapacity benefit in 2002 had mental or behavioural disorders, compared to 22 per cent with musculoskeletal conditions.
Writing in the British Medical Journal, the researchers have called for more to be done to help people with depression return to work.
They said that depression and anxiety were almost entirely managed in primary care, with effective treatments including antidepressants and counselling, but said the UK had “very poor provision” in occupational health compared with the rest of Europe.
“Both employers and patients require a speedier response than is currently delivered, as the longer an individual remains off work, the more difficult a return becomes,” they wrote.
The Health and Safety Executive has produced guidelines on the management of stress at work after the number of people reporting stress that was caused or made worse by their work was found to have doubled from 1995 onwards.
The Government recently announced that benefits paid to 2.7 million sick and disabled people were to be overhauled to remove disincentives to return to work.
