OBJECTIVES: To determine which economic burden outcomes were assessed in studies on mental health disorders published in 2014. METHODS: An evidence surveillance process was established based on a systematic search of PubMed, incorporating all studies published from 2010 and updated weekly, with a final search on 1 June 2015. Abstracts identified by the search for costs or resource use outcomes in mental health disorders were identified. Articles were included if they reported results from a primary research study or economic model. Economic outcomes were identified, where possible, from the abstract alone. RESULTS: The economic burden search identified 1,870 articles published in 2014, with 968 meeting the inclusion criteria for any disease. Of these, 76 (8%) were in mental health disorders. The most commonly researched disorders were drug, tobacco or alcohol abuse (25 articles), followed by depression (17), dementia (7) and schizophrenia (8). The USA was the most common setting, based on abstract text or author affiliations (31 articles), followed by the UK (13), the Netherlands (7) and Germany (4). Despite the high societal costs associated with mental illness, this was generally under-reported, with just 26 of the 76 articles reporting indirect social, productivity, informal care or criminal justice costs. In comparison, direct costs were evaluated in 48 articles and healthcare resource use in 38 articles. Indirect costs were reported in 6 of the 7 studies from the Netherlands, compared with 4 of the 13 UK studies and 6 of the 31 USA studies. Caregiver burden was assessed in just 3 studies, one each on dementia, autism and depression. CONCLUSIONS: Recent research on economic burden in mental health disorders has focused disproportionately on the management of substance abuse and on direct costs or healthcare resource use. Up-to-date data on indirect costs from other chronic mental disorders remains sparse.