Neurotic people can each company a cost of $ 22,000 a year

neurotics are not only what your own life more difficult but also cost billions of dollars in company health costs and lost productivity each year, according to a Dutch study.

Researchers at the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam analyzed the cost of being neurotic and found, while neurotic individuals society lowest cost less than $ 3,000 per year, most neurotic people cost more than $ 22,000 a year.

Neuroticism - a tendency towards companies worry, anxiety and emotional and downs - is considered a personality trait with genetic roots and is strongly associated with various mental illnesses, including depression, anxiety and schizophrenia.

"We think that the economic costs would be a good way to assess the overall impact of neuroticism," said Dr. Pim Cuijpers told Reuters Health. "We were surprised that the impact was so great."

While research has examined the economic costs of the various mental disorders, most studies have focused on neuroticism one disorder or a mental health issue, Cuijpers and colleagues said in their study published in Archives of General Psychiatry.

For their study looked at nearly 5,500 adults and examined their medical expenses and the number of days they were absent from work to reach an annual rate (in dollars).

Neurotic traits were assessed using a scale of 14 items drawn from a questionnaire widely used personality inventory in the Netherlands.

The researchers found that the average cost for people who scored at 5 percent on the basis of neuroticism was $ 12,362 above the average population.

Excess costs for people 10 percent were $ 8,243, while the costs for 25 percent scored the highest in neuroticism were $ 5,572.

The increased costs associated with neuroticism were "considerably higher" than those of mental health problems, such as mood disorders and anxiety disorders, substance abuse, and somatic disorders (ie, physical problems related psychologically), the researchers said.

For example, common mental disorders cost an extra $ 600 million per million inhabitants, it is estimated, compared with nearly $ 1.4 billion for neuroticism.

This is largely because more people with some degree of neuroticism that there are people with mental illness, Cuijpers said.

Cuijpers said the findings show that personality affects not only the individual but also society.

"If this is done as a common understanding, there are many levels at which these problems could be reduced," said Cuijpers. "For example, employers can develop a good climate of mental health and mental health services may be included as basic needs in health care in general."