Call for the Government to help alleviate human cost of debt, poverty and unemployment, which can have an impact on mental health, writes JUNE SHANNON
THE number of prescriptions for some mental-health drugs increased by a fifth between 2007 and 2008, according to a new report on the impact of the recession on mental health.
The Human Cost – An overview of the evidence on economic adversity and mental health and recommendations for action, by the Mental Health Commission (MHC), looked at a selection of drugs used to treat mental illness from the top 100 commonly prescribed medicines on the General Medical Scheme (GMS).
According to the report, the number of prescriptions for 13 out of 14 selected drugs increased between 2007 and 2008. The most marked increase was in the anti-depressant Mirtazapine, whose prescriptions rose by more than 19 per cent.
Other products showed an increase in prescription rates of over 10 per cent; including the benzodiazepine Alprazolam, a sedative used to treat a number of conditions including anxiety.
The report, which also looks at the wider impact of the recession on the country’s mental health, said it was likely that the downturn would lead to an increasing number of people attending GPs for mental health difficulties as the majority of mental-health problems are treated in primary care.
While acknowledging that a lack of centralised data on GP visits made it impossible to establish increased visits due to mental-health difficulties, the MHC said: “Statistics from the Primary Care Reimbursement Scheme (PCRS) show increased levels of demand, particularly from 2007 to 2008; the year the effects of the recession were beginning to be felt within the system.
“While it is difficult to make concrete attributions, the increases in rates of prescription for anti-depressants in particular are greater than the 6 per cent increase in medical cards which occurred from 2007 to 2008,” the report said.
According to the MHC, the recession “represents a time of high stress for individuals, organisations and society as a whole. Research evidence presented here suggests that components of economic adversity such as unemployment, debt and poverty have a significant impact on mental health.”
While it welcomed a number of initiatives taken by Government, the MHC also proposed a number of actions “to help alleviate the human cost of the economic crisis”. These include the provision of regular mental-health awareness training to staff in contact with people in financial difficulty such as those in banks, and utility companies.
In a statement released to mark World Mental Health Day yesterday MHC chair Dr Edmond O’Dea said: “Economic difficulty puts strain on individuals and may add to mental health problems. At the same time economic difficulty leads Government to postpone necessary investment in mental health services in recessionary times.”