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Economic Problems Lead to a Rise in Depression

Prescriptions for anti-depressants have risen by more than forty per cent over the past four years. Doctors and various charities have said that this figure is mostly people who are struggling with general debt and also fears of redundancy. Financial problems can sometimes act as a “trigger”, but there are other things to take into consideration such as the fact that being depressed is now more acceptable. The worrying thing is that this particular rise has happened during a time when alternative therapies have been available such as talking therapies, which should have curbed the demand for anti-depressant drugs. Department of Health figures have shown that this year referrals for talking therapies have risen to nearly 600,000.

During times of economic hardships mental health problems seem to get worse and GPs are seeing more and more people coming in to their surgeries with major debt problems or they have employment worries. People often feel guilty that they cannot provide for their loved ones and this can often lead to depression. The rich seem to get richer and the poor just seem too get depressed.

This entry was posted on 09/04/2011 at 12:47 pm and is filed under Finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “Economic Problems Lead to a Rise in Depression”

  1. admin says:
    09/04/2011 at 12:51 pm

    I think we all know of someone who has been affected by this current economic downturn and it is only set to get worse as the cuts deepen. We all know that drugs and anti-depressants are not the answer and that the quality of life in this country is the important thing. Let us hope that when the economy finally bounces back (if) that our society and country isn’t broken beyond repair.

  2. Fin says:
    25/04/2011 at 10:58 am

    I got depressed reading this, I’m going to visit my doctor . . .

  3. Dandy says:
    01/05/2011 at 12:12 pm

    There are a lot of people coming off the dole because they work over 16 hours a week and can claim tax credits to make up the difference in earnings. With the increase in part-time work and the decrease of full-time work this will happen more and more. All this means that the figures for those unemployed and claiming benefits are not now the point. It would probably be better to get the figures for those claiming housing benefit which would tell us how many people are not on a living wage which is more useful.

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