← Back to Portfolio

Economic Burden of Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders

NORC at the University of Chicago · February 2026. Authors: A. F. Kritikos, M. Hefferon, D. Chelluri, M. L. Hughes, and Tandem J. Young. Supported by Arisa Health and Centerstone.

Headline finding: Mental health and substance use disorders impose a $107.3 billion annual economic burden on the U.S.

Breakdown: $59.5B in health care costs + $47.7B in productivity losses (absenteeism, unemployment, and foregone tax revenue).

Heartland region: $11.2B burden across 7 states (AR, IL, IN, KS, MO, OK, TN).

Arkansas impact: ≈$0.7B total burden (≈$0.6B health care + ≈$90M in lost wages).

Open the full PDF Download PDF

Loads a ~2 MB preview in the page. You can also use Open or Download above.

If the embedded PDF doesn’t display on your device, use the buttons above to open or download it.