Effects of macroeconomic fluctuations on mental health and psychotropic medicine consumption

Our aim in this paper is to understand the impact of macroeconomic fluctuations on mental health and psychotropic medicine consumption. In order to do that we exploit differences in the fluctuations of business cycle conditions across regional units in Catalonia. Our findings suggest that, in genera...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of health care finance and economics 2020-09, Vol.20 (3), p.277-297
Main Authors: Martínez-Jiménez, Mario, Castelló, Judit Vall
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anxiolytics
Business cycles
Consumption
Economic conditions
Economic Policy
Economics
Fluctuations
Health Administration
Health Care Management
Health Economics
Labor market
Macroeconomics
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Mental health
Psychotropic drugs
Public Finance
Public Health
Regional development
RESEARCH ARTICLE
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Summary:Our aim in this paper is to understand the impact of macroeconomic fluctuations on mental health and psychotropic medicine consumption. In order to do that we exploit differences in the fluctuations of business cycle conditions across regional units in Catalonia. Our findings suggest that, in general, economic fluctuations at the local level had no significant effect on the consumption of psychotropic medicines. However, we show that a deterioration in local labour market conditions is associated with a reduction in the consumption of anxiolytics medicines. We also report an increase in the consumption of anxiolytics in regions with a softer deterioration in the economic situation. Although we report mild improvements in both mental and physical health for some sub-groups of the population, we also find significant reductions on the probability of sleeping 6 h or more. Thus, these elements point towards potential negative effects of local labour market conditions on health in the medium/long term.
ISSN:2199-9023
2199-9031
DOI:10.1007/s10754-020-09281-3