Depression and anxiety most common reasons for long-term sickness

Depression and anxiety are now the most common reasons people give for claiming long-term sickness benefits, according to British researchers. As the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk reports, they have overtaken musculoskeletal conditions such as back pain, which used to prompt most such claims, according to the researchers from London's King's College Hospital http://www.kingsch.nhs.uk . They called for more to be done to help people with depression return to work. According to the London-based team, these benefits, available after six months' sickness, cost 13 billion pounds a year. They add an estimated 176 million working days were lost in 2003, up 10 million on the previous year.