Depression study shows effect on business

Investing in depressed employees -- quickly getting them treatment and even offering telephone psychotherapy -- can cut absenteeism while improving workers' health, a study suggests.

Many employers view mental health coverage as a financial black hole, but the study shows that spending money on depression is a smart business move, said researcher Dr. Philip Wang. Wang works for the National Institute of Mental Health, which funded the study.

Employees who got the aggressive intervention worked on average about two weeks more during the yearlong study than those who got the usual care -- advice to see their doctor or seek a mental health specialist.

Also, more workers in the intervention group were still employed by year's end -- 93 percent vs. 88 percent -- savings that helped employers avoid hiring and training costs, the researchers said.

In addition, intervention employees were almost 40 percent more likely to recover from depression during the yearlong study, which was reported last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The researchers haven't finished a formal cost-benefits analysis but early results suggest savings from more hours worked averaged to about $1,800 per employee. That far exceeds the program's initial $100 to $400 per worker cost. The benefits also likely exceed other costs, including drugs and therapy too, the researchers said.

"We knew before that treating depression makes good medical sense. This suggests that it makes good business sense," said Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the institute.

The percentage of workers who improved substantially -- 31 percent -- or who recovered -- 26 percent -- was low even in the intervention group. That was comparable to the rate of improvement in other studies of people with depression.

The results are important because depression takes a hefty toll on the U.S. workplace, affecting about 6 percent of employees each year and costing over $30 billion annually in lost productivity, said study co-author Ronald Kessler, a Harvard Medical School researcher. Kessler has worked as a paid consultant for several drug companies, including makers of antidepressants.