According to World Health Organization, “mental health is an integral and essential component of health.”
Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. Mental illnesses or disorders are among the most common health conditions in the United States. Mental disorders affect people from all walks of life and all age groups. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 50 percent of the U.S. population will be diagnosed with a mental illness or disorder at some point in their lifetime.
Mental disorders, as defined in the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), include mental, behavioral, and neurodevelopmental conditions. Mental disorders include anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, substance abuse, and other mental and neurodevelopmental illnesses.
This Statistical Brief presents estimates based on the Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-HC) of healthcare utilization and expenditures for the treatment of mental disorders among adults ages 18 and older in the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population. Only differences between estimates that are statistically significant at the 0.05 level are discussed in this Brief.