In any one-month period, nearly 8 million Americans suffer from depression. As many as one in five Americans will suffer at least one major episode of depression during their lifetimes. Twenty-five percent of patients seen by primary care physicians have psychological disorders. Mental disorders are real and debilitating. They result in lost productivity that affects all Americans.
Mental disorders are the health condition that most limits the ability to work.
In fact, they are the third most limiting health condition in terms of performing major daily activities, preceded only by cancer and stroke. Individuals with major depression were found to be more than 4 times more likely to take disability days than non-depressed employees and 3 times more likely to miss time from work. Workers testing positive for drug use were two and a half times more likely to be absent than workers who did not test positive. In 1980, alcoholism alone cost America 500 million lost work days. The cost of lost productivity due to mental disorders can be measured in real dollars.