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| |  Financial Strain A Major Cause Of Psychiatric Illness LONDON, ENGLAND -- July 10, 1998 -- The prevalence of the most common mental disorders -- anxiety and depression -- has been shown to be consistently associated with unemployment and poverty, independent of occupational social class. In this week's issue of the British Medical Journal Dr. Scott Weich from the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine and professor Glyn Lewis from the University of Wales reveal their findings in a study of mental disorders among 7,726 adults in England, Wales and Scotland. The authors found that even though unemployment and poverty were associated with the maintenance of episodes of the most common mental disorders they were not in fact responsible for their onset. They discovered that financial strain was a powerful predictor of both the onset and maintenance of cases of mental disorders, even after taking account of different standards of living. "Poverty and unemployment increase the prevalence of common mental disorders by maintaining episodes rather than by precipitating their onset," the researchers write. "Financial strain was strongly associated with both onset and maintenance of common mental disorders and was neither confounded nor modified by more objective risk factors." "Although it is most likely that financial strain was simply the most accurate measure of standard of living it may also represent an aspect of personality such as proneness to pessimism or worry." Weich and Lewis conclude that further research is needed to better understand the impact on mental health of financial strain and unemployment.
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