Treating Children and Youths Mental Health Conditions: What can Big data tell us about economic cost and benefits of different treatments practices?

Mental health issues are a leading cause of disability and lost work days, despite that many mental health problems are diagnosed in childhood, which suggests that we are not appropriately addressing the children’s mental health.

Globally 10 to 20% of children suffer from mental health issues, and suicide is the foremost common cause of death among young people in Sweden, the US, as well as worldwide among persons aged 15-24.Despite these statistics, there is relatively little systematic studies exploring the economic consequences of children’s mental health problems, and especially the cost and benefits of treatments on non-health endpoints.

In fact, before the pandemic and the realization that lockdowns could result in substantial mental strain especially in children, mental health was seldom discussed in an economic context at all, potentially reflecting the stigma attached to the question.We want to change that.

To better understand the economic consequences of mental health problems, in this project we will harness full population linked administrative records to better understand how mental illness in children are treated and how not only their health but also how their educational and labor market outcomes later are affected by different treatments.

We will also measure the cost/benefits of treatments by also studying outcomes of the treated children’s family members and their peers in schools.