Lifetime costs of perinatal anxiety and depression

Anxiety and depression are common among women during pregnancy and the year after birth. The consequences, both for the women themselves and for their children, can be considerable and last for many years. This study focuses on the economic consequences, aiming to estimate the total costs and health-related quality of life losses over the lifetime of mothers and their children.

A pathway or decision modelling approach was employed, based on data from previous studies. Systematic and pragmatic literature reviews were conducted to identify evidence of impacts of perinatal anxiety and depression on mothers and their children.

The present value of total lifetime costs of perinatal depression (anxiety) was £75,728 (£34,811) per woman with condition. If prevalence estimates were applied the respective cost of perinatal anxiety and depression combined was about £8500 per woman giving birth; for the United Kingdom, the aggregated costs were £6.6 billion. The majority of the costs related to adverse impacts on children and almost a fifth were borne by the public sector.

The method was exploratory in nature, based on a diverse range of literature and encountered important data gaps.

Findings suggest the need to allocate more resources to support women with perinatal mental illness. More research is required to understand the type of interventions that can reduce long-term negative effects for both mothers and offspring.