Unemployment as a Risk Factor for Mental Illness: Combining Social and Psychiatric Literature

Abstract

Unemployment has been shown to have wide ranging effects on physical and mental health. This review looks to clarify the relationship between unemployment and mental illness specifically, in terms of establishing causality, effect size and moderating factors. The current rational for research combines an etiological approach and interest in the social causation of disease with past work from a social psychological perspective. For this review, PsychInfo, Medline and Embase databases were searched between the years of 1970 and 2011, for prospective studies that include unemployment and mental illness terms. 10 studies were found which matched the inclusion criteria. Studies were included if they studied the long term unemployed, defined the age and gender of their study population, defined their outcome measurements in medical terms, and followed a population prospectively over time. Overall unemployment did precede mental illness; however the exact effect size is unclear. A quantitative meta-analysis was not conducted due to the variability in study design. The discussion tries to point to methodological and theoretical limitations that affect investigations into unemployment and mental illness. It concludes that the work has so far been skewed by individual biases, and that there needs to be wider collaboration between the social sciences and psychiatry.

Trends in the Prevalence and Incidence of Anxiety and Depression in Adult Population in Iran: Findings from Kerman Coronary Artery Diseases Risk factors Study (KERCADRS)

“…In line with previous studies, our results demonstrated that unemployment increases the chance of anxiety and depression [20,29,30]. Economically, unemployment status increases the risk of development and progression of psychiatric disorders and strong evidence is available in this regard for depression and anxiety disorders [31][32][33]. Unemployed people may develop some degree of anxiety and depression due to income inequality and the feeling of uselessness, failure, and incompetence [34], especially in countries with weak social security support and unemployment insurance like Iran.…”

Trends in the Prevalence and Incidence of Anxiety and Depression in Adult Population in Iran: Findings from Kerman Coronary Artery Diseases Risk factors Study (KERCADRS)

“…In line with previous studies, our results demonstrated that unemployment increases the chance of anxiety and depression [19,28,29]. Economically, unemployment status increases the risk of development and progression of psychiatric disorders and strong evidence is available in this regard for depression and anxiety disorders [30][31][32]. Unemployed people may develop some degree of anxiety and depression due to income inequality and the feeling of uselessness, failure, and incompetence [33].…”

Changes in The Signs, Symptoms, and Anger Management of Patients with A Risk of Violent Behavior After Receiving Assertive Training and Family Psychoeducation Using Roy’s Theoretical Approach: A Case Report

“…Ten (90.9%) of the patients are unemployed. Zhang and Bhavsar (2013) stated that someone who is unemployed has an increased risk of developing mental disorders. Poverty is related to insecurity, lack of education level, inadequate housing, and malnutrition, which can affect the emergence of mental disorders (Kuruvilla & Jacob, 2007).…”