COST–BENEFIT ANALYSIS OF MENTAL HEALTH INTERVENTIONS FOR DEPRESSION, BIPOLAR DISORDER, AND ANXIETY DISORDERS IN NIGERIA

Depression, anxiety disorders, and bipolar disorder are chronic and highly disabling conditions that start early in life and often continue for a significant period, resulting in huge economic and health losses. Here, we make a compelling argument for scaled-up investments in mental health to address the losses from depression, anxiety disorders, and bipolar disorder. We used the mental health module of the OneHealth tool to calculate treatment costs and health impacts from 2022 to 2042. We assumed a linear increase in treatment coverage. Also, we factored in an improvement of 5% in both the ability to work and productivity at work because of the treatment, subsequently mapped to the prevailing rates of labor participation and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. The net present value of investment needed over the period 2022-2042 to substantially scale up effective treatment coverage for depression, anxiety disorders, and bipolar disorders is estimated to be US$ 6.3 billion and US$ 10.7 billion in the moderate and aggressive scenarios respectively. The results of this analysis confirm the large impact mental health conditions have on the Nigerian economy and indicate the health and economic benefits to be gained from investing in the evidence-based interventions for depression, anxiety disorders, and bipolar disorder. To reduce the negative consequences of mental health conditions and increase people‘s life expectancy and quality of life, while concurrently reducing productivity losses, Nigeria can take the following actions to translate the expected returns on investment into policy and practice; strengthen mental health governance and legislation; improve upon existing mental health financing; prioritize mental health interventions; and invest in the evidence-based mental health interventions modelled in the study.