Birnbaum HG, Greenberg PE, Barton M, Kessler RC, Rowland CR, Williamson TE (1999). Workplace burden of depression: A case study in social functioning using employer claims data. Drug Benefit Trends, 11(8):6.
Abstract: While the literature on the economics of depression and its treatment has burgeoned in recent years, little has been written from the perspective of an employer interested in comprehensively managing the overall burden of this illness in the workplace. Ideally, such an analysis would include assessment of the relationship between the direct costs of depression (including hospitalization, outpatient care, physician visits, and prescription drugs) and the indirect costs of illness in the workplace (including the value of missed work days for disability and sick time, reduced on-the-job productivity, and the search and training costs resulting from depression-induced turnover). This analysis measures the direct and indirect costs of major depression, using claims data from a Fortune 100 manufacturer.

Simon GE, Revicki D, Heiligenstein J, Grothaus L, VonKorff M, Katon WJ, Hylan TR, (2000). Recovery from depression, work productivity, and health care costs among primary care patients. General Hospital Psychiatry, 22, 153-62.
Abstract: We describe a secondary analysis of data from a randomized trial conducted at seven primary care clinics of a Seattle area HMO. Adults with major depression (n=290) beginning antidepressant treatment completed structured interviews at baseline, 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, and 24 months. Interviews examined clinical outcomes (Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and depression module of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IIIR), employment status, and work days missed due to illness. Medical comorbidity was assessed using computerized pharmacy data, and medical costs were assessed using the HMO's computerized accounting data. Using data from the 12-month assessment, patients were classified as remitted (41%), improved but not remitted (47%), and persistently depressed (12%). After adjustment for depression severity and medical comorbidity at baseline, patients with greater clinical improvement were more likely to maintain paid employment (P=.007) and reported fewer days missed from work due to illness (P<.001). Patients with better 12-month clinical outcomes had marginally lower health care costs during the second year of follow-up (P=.06). We conclude that recovery from depression is associated with significant reductions in work disability and possible reductions in health care costs. Although observational data cannot definitively prove any causal relationships, these longitudinal results strengthen previous findings regarding the economic burden of depression on employers and health insurers.

Goetzel RZ, Anderson DR, Whitmer RW, Ozminkowski RJ, Dunn RL, Wasserman J, HERO Research Committee (1998). The relationship between modifiable health risks and health care expenditures. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 40(10), 843-854.
Abstract: This investigation estimates the impact of ten modifiable health risk behaviors and measures and their impact on health care expenditures, controlling for other measured risk and demographic factors. Retrospective two-stage multivariate analyses, including logistic and linear regression models, were used to follow up 46,026 employees from six large health care purchasers for up to 3 years after they completed an initial health risk appraisal. These participants contributed 113,963 person-years of experience. Results show that employees at high risk for poor health outcomes had significantly higher expenditures than did subjects at lower risk in seven of ten risk categories: those who reported themselves as depressed (70% higher expenditures), at high stress (46%), with high blood glucose levels (35%), at extremely high or low body weight (21%), former (20%) and current (14%) tobacco users, with high blood pressure (12%), and with sedentary lifestyle (10\%). These same risk factors were found to be associated with a higher likelihood of having extremely high (outlier) expenditures. Employees with multiple risk profiles for specific disease outcomes had higher expenditures than did those without these profiles for the following diseases: heart disease (228% higher expenditures), psychosocial problems (147%), and stroke (85%). Compared with prior studies, the results provide more precise estimates of the incremental medical expenditures associated with common modifiable risk factors after we controlled for multiple risk conditions and demographic confounders. The authors conclude that common modifiable health risks are associated with short-term increases in the likelihood of incurring health expenditures and in the magnitude of those expenditures.

Robinson RL, Birnbaum HG, Morley MA, Sisitsky T, Greenberg PE, Wolfe F. Depression and fibromyalgia: treatment and cost when diagnosed separately or concurrently. J Rheumatol. 2004;31:1621-1629.
Abstract: OBJECTIVE: Depression and fibromyalgia (FM) are often coincident. Both syndromes share common symptoms and impose significant economic burdens. This study compared claims for treatment and costs of FM plus depression with those for FM or depression alone. METHODS: Administrative claims data from a national Fortune 100 manufacturer were used to identify 3 mutually exclusive patient cohorts based on claims with a diagnosis for: FM only, depression only, and FM plus depression. A fourth cohort comprised a random sample of 10% of the employer's overall beneficiary population. Cohorts were compared for demographics, comorbid conditions, and healthcare resources utilization. Mean direct (treatment) costs were calculated and indirect (work loss) costs imputed, and these were assessed using Student's t test and Bonferroni adjustments. RESULTS: Mean annual employer payments (direct plus indirect costs) per patient were 5,163 dollars for FM only, 8,073 dollars for depression only, 11,899 dollars for FM plus depression, and 2,486 dollars for the overall sample. Mean incremental employer payments (i.e., above those for the random sample) per patient with FM plus depression were 9,413 dollars, an amount more than the sum of incremental costs for those with FM or depression alone (8,264 dollars). These costs are consistent with costs of other chronic diseases. CONCLUSION: Patients with FM plus depression are high users of healthcare services. As in studies that established relationships between depression and other medical conditions, incremental costs for patients with FM plus depression were more than additive of costs for each condition alone

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