Debt, common mental disorders and mental health service use

Abstract

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Association between over-indebtedness and antidepressant use: A cross-sectional analysis

“…Likewise, our findings are in line with those of other recent studies that found an association of over-indebtedness and common mental disorders including anxiety which also reflect common indications for antidepressant prescriptions [15,11,17]. Previous studies have examined the association of diverse measures of over-indebtedness, such as self-reported problems repaying debts [12,11,17] or mortgage arrears [11,13,16] and mental health outcomes. Longitudinal analyses based on the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) documented that over-indebtedness was associated with worse mental health outcomes including anxiety and the GHQ Caseness Score [11].…”

“…More specifically, the over-indebted were twice as likely to have a depressive disorder (aOR 2.36, 95% CI 1.59-3.50) and generalised anxiety disorder (aOR 2.51, 95% CI 1.85-3.41) [15]. Likewise, evidence from the South East London Community Health (SELCoH) study showed a significant increase in the odds of CMD among over-indebted respondents over time [17]. Moreover, the latter study found an association between continuous over-indebtedness and talking therapy use in the past year even after adjustment for sociodemographic and socioeconomic variables and prior mental health.…”

“…Besides physical morbidity, e.g. diabetes [7], obesity [8] and pain [9,10], over-indebtedness has consistently been found to be associated with mental illness, including psychoses [7] and depression [11][12][13][14][15][16][17].…”

Patient safety and suicide prevention in mental health services: time for a new paradigm?

“…Mental health services manage patient populations with complex social and psychiatric needs. Patients with mental health problems are more likely to have experienced financial difficulties, debt, housing issues and unemployment, which may complicate care planning (Evans, 2018;Gunasinghe et al, 2018;Richardson, Jansen, & Fitch, 2018). Mental capacity can fluctuate due to psychiatric symptoms and psychological distress and patients may refuse treatment .…”

'Money doesn’t talk, it swears'

“…Their Head of Research, Katie Evans starts off this issue with a helpful overview of some of the links between financial challenges and mental health problems (Evans, 2018). The links between debt, demographic characteristics and common mental health problems is then investigated in important research by Gunasinghe et al (2018). Two papers using survey data throw light on how individuals with mental health problems get into a spiral of debt.…”