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Due to the rapid economic growth and advancement in medical technology, many countries have experienced in the past decades an epidemiological transition from communicable to non- communicable dieses (NCDs). One of the challenges in the era of NCDs is the large treatment gap, measured by the difference between the need for treatment and the actual provision of treatment, among patients with NCDs. This paper investigates the causes of treatment gap in mental healthcare from the perspective of economics. Specifically, we hypothesizes that people with mental illness face four major hurdles in seeking appropriate healthcare, namely the high nonmonetary cost due to stigma, the high out-of-pocket payment due to insufficient public funds devoted to the mental health sector, the high time prices due to low mental healthcare resource availability, and the low treatment benefit due to slow technology diffusion. We then use China as a study setting to show the country-specific evidence. Our analysis supports the above theoretical argument on the four access barriers, which in turn sheds light on the effective approaches to mitigate the treatment gap. Four policy options are then discussed, including an information campaign for mental health awareness, increasing public investment in primary mental healthcare resources, transforming the healthcare system towards an integrated people-centered system and capitalizing on e-health technologies.

Mental health conditions such as depression is a rapidly rising epidemic and a major contributor to the overall global burden of disease. In addition to the direct medical costs and indirect economic costs that falls into the traditional boundary of disease burden estimation, many social costs associated with depression are hidden yet important. This paper provides empirical evidence on the existence of two hidden costs associated with depression: negative impact on social trust and life satisfaction. Based on the data obtained from 2012 China Family Panel Studies, our estimated results indicate that individuals who have a high tendency for depression or depressive symptoms are less likely to trust other people, and they also have significantly lower life satisfaction than their counterparts who are relatively mentally healthy. Given that trust is an important component of social capital, which in turn is an important input to foster economic growth in general and innovation in particular, the reduction in trust induced by the increasing prevalence of depression imposes a significant cost to the society in terms of poor economic performance. Similarly, as life satisfaction has been widely recognized as an important measure of well-being, our study also highlights that the increase in the prevalence of depression leads to a reduction in the well-being that individual can enjoy. All these costs are real, but did not receive sufficient attention in the previous research. The contribution of our research is to shed light on the existence of these hidden costs and to quantify the magnitude of such costs in the context of China.

Mental health conditions such as depression is a rapidly rising epidemic and a major contributor to the overall global burden of disease. In addition to the direct medical costs and indirect economic costs that falls into the traditional boundary of disease burden estimation, many social costs associated with depression are hidden yet important. This paper provides empirical evidence on the existence of two hidden costs associated with depression: negative impact on social trust and life satisfaction. Based on the data obtained from 2012 China Family Panel Studies, our estimated results indicate that individuals who have a high tendency for depression or depressive symptoms are less likely to trust other people, and they also have significantly lower life satisfaction than their counterparts who are relatively mentally healthy. Given that trust is an important component of social capital, which in turn is an important input to foster economic growth in general and innovation in particular, the reduction in trust induced by the increasing prevalence of depression imposes a significant cost to the society in terms of poor economic performance. Similarly, as life satisfaction has been widely recognized as an important measure of well-being, our study also highlights that the increase in the prevalence of depression leads to a reduction in the well-being that individual can enjoy. All these costs are real, but did not receive sufficient attention in the previous research. The contribution of our research is to shed light on the existence of these hidden costs and to quantify the magnitude of such costs in the context of China.

Due to the rapid economic growth and advancement in medical technology, many countries have experienced in the past decades an epidemiological transition from communicable to non- communicable dieses (NCDs). One of the challenges in the era of NCDs is the large treatment gap, measured by the difference between the need for treatment and the actual provision of treatment, among patients with NCDs. This paper investigates the causes of treatment gap in mental healthcare from the perspective of economics. Specifically, we hypothesizes that people with mental illness face four major hurdles in seeking appropriate healthcare, namely the high nonmonetary cost due to stigma, the high out-of-pocket payment due to insufficient public funds devoted to the mental health sector, the high time prices due to low mental healthcare resource availability, and the low treatment benefit due to slow technology diffusion. We then use China as a study setting to show the country-specific evidence. Our analysis supports the above theoretical argument on the four access barriers, which in turn sheds light on the effective approaches to mitigate the treatment gap. Four policy options are then discussed, including an information campaign for mental health awareness, increasing public investment in primary mental healthcare resources, transforming the healthcare system towards an integrated people-centered system and capitalizing on e-health technologies.

Mental health conditions such as depression is a rapidly rising epidemic and a major contributor to the overall global burden of disease. In addition to the direct medical costs and indirect economic costs that falls into the traditional boundary of disease burden estimation, many social costs associated with depression are hidden yet important. This paper provides empirical evidence on the existence of two hidden costs associated with depression: negative impact on social trust and life satisfaction. Based on the data obtained from 2012 China Family Panel Studies, our estimated results indicate that individuals who have a high tendency for depression or depressive symptoms are less likely to trust other people, and they also have significantly lower life satisfaction than their counterparts who are relatively mentally healthy. Given that trust is an important component of social capital, which in turn is an important input to foster economic growth in general and innovation in particular, the reduction in trust induced by the increasing prevalence of depression imposes a significant cost to the society in terms of poor economic performance. Similarly, as life satisfaction has been widely recognized as an important measure of well-being, our study also highlights that the increase in the prevalence of depression leads to a reduction in the well-being that individual can enjoy. All these costs are real, but did not receive sufficient attention in the previous research. The contribution of our research is to shed light on the existence of these hidden costs and to quantify the magnitude of such costs in the context of China.

Due to the rapid economic growth and advancement in medical technology, many countries have experienced in the past decades an epidemiological transition from communicable to non- communicable dieses (NCDs). One of the challenges in the era of NCDs is the large treatment gap, measured by the difference between the need for treatment and the actual provision of treatment, among patients with NCDs. This paper investigates the causes of treatment gap in mental healthcare from the perspective of economics. Specifically, we hypothesizes that people with mental illness face four major hurdles in seeking appropriate healthcare, namely the high nonmonetary cost due to stigma, the high out-of-pocket payment due to insufficient public funds devoted to the mental health sector, the high time prices due to low mental healthcare resource availability, and the low treatment benefit due to slow technology diffusion. We then use China as a study setting to show the country-specific evidence. Our analysis supports the above theoretical argument on the four access barriers, which in turn sheds light on the effective approaches to mitigate the treatment gap. Four policy options are then discussed, including an information campaign for mental health awareness, increasing public investment in primary mental healthcare resources, transforming the healthcare system towards an integrated people-centered system and capitalizing on e-health technologies.

Mental health conditions such as depression is a rapidly rising epidemic and a major contributor to the overall global burden of disease. In addition to the direct medical costs and indirect economic costs that falls into the traditional boundary of disease burden estimation, many social costs associated with depression are hidden yet important. This paper provides empirical evidence on the existence of two hidden costs associated with depression: negative impact on social trust and life satisfaction. Based on the data obtained from 2012 China Family Panel Studies, our estimated results indicate that individuals who have a high tendency for depression or depressive symptoms are less likely to trust other people, and they also have significantly lower life satisfaction than their counterparts who are relatively mentally healthy. Given that trust is an important component of social capital, which in turn is an important input to foster economic growth in general and innovation in particular, the reduction in trust induced by the increasing prevalence of depression imposes a significant cost to the society in terms of poor economic performance. Similarly, as life satisfaction has been widely recognized as an important measure of well-being, our study also highlights that the increase in the prevalence of depression leads to a reduction in the well-being that individual can enjoy. All these costs are real, but did not receive sufficient attention in the previous research. The contribution of our research is to shed light on the existence of these hidden costs and to quantify the magnitude of such costs in the context of China.

Due to the rapid economic growth and advancement in medical technology, many countries have experienced in the past decades an epidemiological transition from communicable to non- communicable dieses (NCDs). One of the challenges in the era of NCDs is the large treatment gap, measured by the difference between the need for treatment and the actual provision of treatment, among patients with NCDs. This paper investigates the causes of treatment gap in mental healthcare from the perspective of economics. Specifically, we hypothesizes that people with mental illness face four major hurdles in seeking appropriate healthcare, namely the high nonmonetary cost due to stigma, the high out-of-pocket payment due to insufficient public funds devoted to the mental health sector, the high time prices due to low mental healthcare resource availability, and the low treatment benefit due to slow technology diffusion. We then use China as a study setting to show the country-specific evidence. Our analysis supports the above theoretical argument on the four access barriers, which in turn sheds light on the effective approaches to mitigate the treatment gap. Four policy options are then discussed, including an information campaign for mental health awareness, increasing public investment in primary mental healthcare resources, transforming the healthcare system towards an integrated people-centered system and capitalizing on e-health technologies.

Mental health conditions such as depression is a rapidly rising epidemic and a major contributor to the overall global burden of disease. In addition to the direct medical costs and indirect economic costs that falls into the traditional boundary of disease burden estimation, many social costs associated with depression are hidden yet important. This paper provides empirical evidence on the existence of two hidden costs associated with depression: negative impact on social trust and life satisfaction. Based on the data obtained from 2012 China Family Panel Studies, our estimated results indicate that individuals who have a high tendency for depression or depressive symptoms are less likely to trust other people, and they also have significantly lower life satisfaction than their counterparts who are relatively mentally healthy. Given that trust is an important component of social capital, which in turn is an important input to foster economic growth in general and innovation in particular, the reduction in trust induced by the increasing prevalence of depression imposes a significant cost to the society in terms of poor economic performance. Similarly, as life satisfaction has been widely recognized as an important measure of well-being, our study also highlights that the increase in the prevalence of depression leads to a reduction in the well-being that individual can enjoy. All these costs are real, but did not receive sufficient attention in the previous research. The contribution of our research is to shed light on the existence of these hidden costs and to quantify the magnitude of such costs in the context of China.

Due to the rapid economic growth and advancement in medical technology, many countries have experienced in the past decades an epidemiological transition from communicable to non- communicable dieses (NCDs). One of the challenges in the era of NCDs is the large treatment gap, measured by the difference between the need for treatment and the actual provision of treatment, among patients with NCDs. This paper investigates the causes of treatment gap in mental healthcare from the perspective of economics. Specifically, we hypothesizes that people with mental illness face four major hurdles in seeking appropriate healthcare, namely the high nonmonetary cost due to stigma, the high out-of-pocket payment due to insufficient public funds devoted to the mental health sector, the high time prices due to low mental healthcare resource availability, and the low treatment benefit due to slow technology diffusion. We then use China as a study setting to show the country-specific evidence. Our analysis supports the above theoretical argument on the four access barriers, which in turn sheds light on the effective approaches to mitigate the treatment gap. Four policy options are then discussed, including an information campaign for mental health awareness, increasing public investment in primary mental healthcare resources, transforming the healthcare system towards an integrated people-centered system and capitalizing on e-health technologies.