For well-being, researchers contend that a $1300 round of psychological treatment equals a $441,000 pay raise, suggesting that psychotherapy may be much more effective at helping people to be happy than getting a raise in salary or even winning a lottery prize.

Researchers analyzed data on thousands of people who provided information about their mental well being and found that the increase in happiness from psychotherapy could be as much as 32 times more cost-effective at improving well being than simply getting more money.

The author states that the findings “are important in courts of law, where huge financial rewards are the default way in which pain and suffering are compensated, but that this has even wider implications for public health and well being”.

The benefits of mental health, Mr. Boyce states, are often not fully appreciated and people do not realize the powerful effect that psychological therapy can have on improving one’s well being, as opposed to financial rewards.