Is it Worth Investing in Mental Health Promotion and Prevention of Mental Illness? A Systematic Review of the Evidence From Economic Evaluations

A systematic review of the published & grey literature was carried out. Economic evaluations of programmes that address mental health outcome parameters directly, those that address relevant risk factors of mental illness, as well as suicide prevention interventions were included, while evaluations of drug therapies were excluded. 14 studies met the inclusion criterion. Robust evidence on cost-effectiveness is still limited to a very small number of interventions with restricted scope for generalisability & transferability. The most favourable results related to early childhood development programmes.