Reuters (4/17, Rapaport) reports, “More than eight million American adults suffer from serious psychological distress, and they’re less likely to access healthcare services than other people,” researchers found after examining “survey data on health care use from 2006 to 2014 for a nationwide sample of 207,853 US adults ages 18 to 64.” The study revealed that “people with serious psychological distress, which includes any mental illness severe enough to require treatment, are three times more likely to be too poor to afford care and 10 times more likely to be unable to pay for medications.” The findings were published online April 17 in Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.
CNN (4/17, Scutti) reports, “The study may help explain why the suicide rate is up to 43,000 people each year, said” lead study author Judith Weissman, PhD, JD, a research manager at New York University’s Langone Medical Center. Weissman “noted that the affected groups are late baby boomers and Generation Xers,” people whom “‘some have described as experiencing not a better horizon but a worse horizon than their parents,’ she said.” Weissman added, “The Great Recession of 2008 had a tremendous impact on adults with serious psychological distress.”
Related Links:
— “Mentally ill accessing less U.S. health care,” Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, April 17, 2017.