The ROI of Behavioral Health in Cardiovascular and Stroke Prevention

When looking to reduce cardiovascular (heart attack, arrhythmias, etc.) and neurovascular (stroke) spend, it is critical to remember that you are serving whole people, not isolated conditions; mental health strategies should be included from the very beginning. When working with limited budgets, investing wisely in behavioral health upfront can positively influence downstream spend across all other high-cost categories, because with behavioral health you can see the total value only if you look at return on investment data comprehensively and holistically. This approach is further supported by emerging evidence showing that depression and anxiety are independently associated with a significantly increased risk of major adverse cardiovascular events, with even higher risk when both conditions are present, underscoring shared stress-related neural, autonomic, and inflammatory pathways and reinforcing the importance of early, integrated behavioral health investment (Abohashem et al., 2025).

Reference:Abohashem, S., Qamar, I., Grewal, S. S., Civieri, G., Islam, S., Aldosoky, W., Bollepalli, S., Rosovsky, R. P., Seligowski, A. V., Shin, L. M., Armoundas, A. A., Osborne, M. T., & Tawakol, A. (2025). Depression and anxiety associate with adverse cardiovascular events via neural, autonomic, and inflammatory pathways. Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCIMAGING.124.017706