Background: The economic burden of psychiatric disorders and learning disability is assessed in order to aid decisions on priorities for research funding.
Method: A wide variety of data sources both on prevalence and on the usage and costs of relevant services were used to measure the economic burden of each condition.
Results: Despite methodological problems and problems with the data, an attempt is made to estimate the relative economic burden imposed by each condition. No attempt is made to sum up the costs for each condition across the agencies and individuals involved.
Conclusions: Our findings show that learning disability, schizophrenia and neurotic conditions (including depression) are major burdens on the National Health Service; senile dementia and depression in older people impact largely on local authority social services. Senile dementia, schizophrenia and learning disability are also heavy charges on the social security system. It is also notable that the large numbers with less severely disabling neurotic disorders generate a burden that, according to our figures, is comparable to schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.