Economic consequences of comorbid depression, anxiety, and allergic rhinitis

The present study extends prior work on the association between allergic rh initis (AR) and common mental disorders by testing three related hypotheses . I) that AR is associated with increased rates of depression and anxiety d isorders in a large insured population, 2) comorbid AR, depression, and anx iety are associated with increased health and mental health expenditures, a nd 3) allergy treatment moderates the association between increased expendi tures and comorbid AR, depression, and anxiety. Data are from MARKETSCAN((R )), a large health care claims database of over 600,000 privately insured p ersons, Results indicate that AR is associated with higher rates of depress ion and anxiety disorder Outpatient health care expenditures were increased by an av erage annual amount of $207 when AR and anxiety disorder were com orbid and $363 when AR and depression were comorbid. Finally prescription t reatment of AR moderated the increased expenditures associated with comorbi dity.