The symptoms include palpitations, a "tight" feeling in the stomach, mood swings and poor concentration. But the underlying cause is financial, according to mental health expert Roger Henderson.

According to his research, money worries have caused 3.8 million Britons to take time off work, while more than 10 million have relationship problems, with one-in-five complaining that financial problems have caused their sex lives to slump.

Henderson believes the problems arise from anxiety brought on by poor financial understanding or control of day-to-day spending. So instead of visiting a doctor, you might be better off tuning into TV money man Eddie Hobbs.

"A quarter of people in debt are receiving treatment for stress, depression and anxiety from their GP, " Henderson says. "Based on what I see in my surgery every day, I believe a financial education programme can only have beneficial results when allied to sound independent financial advice."

One of the participants in Henderson's research, Ben Cox, described his condition as follows: "I worry about money at least once or twice a week. I find myself running out of money towards the end of the month, and I'm always worrying about when the next bill is going to come through. My relationships suffer as I am short tempered and irritable, and my sleep is often interrupted. I admit I drink a little more than usual when I'm worrying about my finances and the stress has even caused me to take time off from work to try to get my head around my money worries."

RETIREMENT SAVING INCREASES BY 25% SAVE. Pensions funds had their best year in almost a decade in 2005, with the value of the country's retirement savings growing 25% to 78bn. But because people are living for longer, the funds' liabilities are growing even faster, so that many company schemes remain stuck in deficit.

This leaves many employers facing a stark choice warns Joe Byrne, chairman of the Irish Association of Pension Funds. He said they could try to plug the gap by contributing more to their workers' pensions. Or they could shut the schemes altogether, forcing employees into substandard definedcontribution schemes where there is no link between wages and pensions.

The strong investment performance that boosted pensions last year also helped to lift the value of savings held in managed funds and other investments linked to property and the stock market.

They grew by 24% to 27.4bn according to the Irish Association of Investment Managers.

Pension trustees are increasingly bypassing active fund managers when investing our retirement savings. Active managers claim that over time they can beat the performance of the stock market.

Fund managers are also gradually cutting their exposure to Irish blue chip companies, which now account for 11% of the total invested.

DEMUTUALISATION WINDFALL ONE to watch. Standard Life policyholders will get the first opportunity to calculate their windfall from any demutualisation of the Edinburgh-based insurer later this month.

In confirming the timetable that could see the company throwing out its long-cherished mutual status, voting and proposal packs will be dispatched to policyholders before the end of April, with the deadline for returning postal votes set for 28 May.

Three-quarters of the eligible membership needing to vote for a demutualisation for any stock market listing, expected during the summer, to proceed.

Last week, Standard Life confirmed that eligible members, including an estimated 100,000 policyholders in Ireland, would receive a fixed allocation of shares from any public flotation.