Mental health

About: Mental health is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 183794 publications have been published within this topic receiving 4340463 citations. The topic is also known as: mental wellbeing.

Health-care costs associated with depressive and anxiety disorders in primary-care

Abstract: Objective: The authors examined the overall health care costs associated with depression and anxiety among primary care patients. Method: I 1 0 consecutive primary care patients in a health maintenance organization, 1,962 were screened with the 12-item General Health Questionnaire. A stratified random sample of6l 5 patients were selected for further diagnostic assessment; 3 73 ofthese patients completed the Composite International Diagnostic Interview at baseline and 328 were reassessed 12 months later. Computerized cost records were used to calculate total health care costs for the 6-month period surrounding the baseline assessment and a similar period surrounding the follow-up assessment. Cost accounting data were available for 327 patients at baseline and for 206 patients at both assessments. Results: Primary care patients with DSM-III-R anxiety or depressive disorders at baseline had markedly higher baseline costs ($2,390) than patients with subthreshold disorders ($1,098) and those with no anxiety or depressive disorder ($ I ,3 97). Large cost differences persisted after adjustment for medical morbidity. Cost differences reflected higher utilization of general medical services rather than higher mental health treatment costs. Although most patients with baseline anxiety or depressive disorders showed significant improvement, longitudinal analyses did not show any clear relationship between change in psychiatric diagnosis and change in health care cost. Conclusions: Among primary care patients, anxiety and depressive disorders are associated with markedly higher health care costs even after adjustment for medical comorbidity. In this small sample, improvement in depression over 1 year was not clearly associated with decreases incost. (AmJ Psychiatry 1995; 152:352-357)

The effects of systemic family violence on children's mental health

Abstract: This study examines the link between different forms of family aggression and children's symptoms of psychopathology. The goal of the study was to understand what forms children's problems might take in violent homes and whether close ties within the family (to the mother or a sibling) buffered children. Interviews with 365 mothers and 1 of their children between the ages of 6 and 12 about abuse in the home, support and closeness within the nuclear family, and mother's and children's mental health formed the basis of this study. Families were recruited from battered women's shelters and the community. We found that different forms of abuse in the home were highly interrelated and that children of battered women were at risk for child abuse. Domestic violence predicted children's general psychopathology, but we uncovered little evidence for the presence of specific sorts of disorders as a result of family dysfunction. Although mothers experiencing conjugal violence were more likely to have mental health problems, their mental health did not mediate the children's response to family conflict. Finally, there was less sibling and parental warmth in families marked by aggression, although when it was present, family social support failed to buffer children. Although the general pattern of results was consistent across respondents (mother and child), there was low agreement on symptoms of child psychopathology.

The Meaning of Anxiety

Abstract: In the revised edition of this now-classic study, the distinguished author of Love and Will deepens his exploration into anxiety theory. Dr. May challenges the idea that mental health means living without anxiety, and he explores anxiety's potential for self-realization as well as ways to avoid its destructive aspects.

Work, Family, and Mental Health: Testing Different Models of Work‐Family Fit

Abstract: Using family resilience theory, this study examined the effects of work-family conflict and work-family facilitation on mental health among working adults to gain a better understanding of work-family fit. Data from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) were used to compare different combinations of work-family conflict and work-family facilitation. Results suggest that family to work facilitation is a family protective factor that offsets and buffers the deleterious effects of work-family conflict on mental health. The results across these outcomes suggest that work-family conflict and facilitation must be considered separately, and that adult mental health is optimized when family to work facilitation is high and family to work and work to family conflict is low.

Natural Course of Schizophrenic Disorders: A 15-Year Followup of a Dutch Incidence Cohort

Abstract: Data are presented on the 15-year natural course of schizophrenia and other nonaffective functional psychoses in a cohort of 82 first-contact cases from a circumscribed area in the Netherlands. The subjects were suffering from functional psychosis with International Classification of Diseases-Ninth Revision (ICD-9) diagnoses 295, 297, or 298.3-9 (broad definition of schizophrenia) on entry. Standardized assessments of psychopathology, psychological impairments, negative symptomatology, social disability, and use of mental healthcare were used. The study reveals a pattern of chronicity and relapses with a high risk of suicide: Two-thirds of the subjects had at least one relapse and after each relapse 1 of 6 subjects did not remit from the episode; 1 of 10 committed suicide; and 1 of 7 had at least one episode with affective psychotic symptoms that started on average 6 years after the onset of the schizophrenic disorder. Diagnoses were reclassified in five patients, according to DSM-III-R criteria for a bipolar disorder. The predictive power--in terms of time in psychosis and in partial or full remission--of demographic, illness, and treatment variables at onset of the illness was very limited. Insidious onset and delays in mental health treatment are risk factors that predict a longer duration of first or subsequent episodes. The importance of mental health treatment in regard to outcome is probably subject to change because an early warning and intervention strategy could prevent further damage and deterioration. Our data support the need for an adequate relapse prevention program as a priority for our mental health services.