In recognition of the recent World Bipolar Day, the BBC has revealed new figures for the cost of bipolar disorder which is now estimated at £9.6 billion in the UK. This is an updated estimate based on the earlier study about the cost of bipolar disorder in the UK led by Professor Judit Simon from the Department of Health Economics, Medical University of Vienna and Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford.
Estimates show that bipolar disorder poses major mental and non-mental healthcare costs, but more than twice as much burden falls on patients and their families in the form of sick leave and informal care. The study also found that costs are closely linked to the severity of depressive and manic symptoms. Therefore, better integrated mental and physical healthcare and improved long-term symptom management could substantially reduce societal costs. This is a conservative estimate, since the total health and economic burden of bipolar disorder is likely to be even bigger when considering under- and misdiagnosed cases, or the additional costs of unemployment and the justice sector.