Stress-related illness 'biggest UK health spend'

Mental, physical and unexplained health conditions associated with stress cost the NHS more than £11bn last year - representing 6.8% of total health expenditure - according to a report by Cigna and Asia Care Group. The study entitled ‘Chronic Stress: Are we reaching health system burn out?' also found that more than 5.5m inpatient admissions were driven by stress-related illness, making it the largest proportion of stress-related healthcare expenditure (23% of all inpatient spend). It also accounted for a third of primary care expenditure (33%) at a cost of £1.8bn and £238m to governm...