Effects of macroeconomic fluctuations on mental health and psychotropic medicine consumption

Martínez-Jiménez, M. and Vall Castelló, J. (2020) Effects of macroeconomic fluctuations on mental health and psychotropic medicine consumption. International Journal of Health Economics and Management, 20. 277–297. ISSN 2199-9031

[thumbnail of BusinessCyclePsychotropicDrug_01_10_19_NoAuthor]
Text (BusinessCyclePsychotropicDrug_01_10_19_NoAuthor)
BusinessCyclePsychotropicDrug_01_10_19_NoAuthor.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial.

Download (451kB)

Abstract

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.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
International Journal of Health Economics and Management
Additional Information:
The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10754-020-09281-3
Subjects:
?? business cycle fluctuationsmental and physical healthpsychotropic consumption ??
ID Code:
144580
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
11 Jun 2020 08:55
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
28 Nov 2023 11:34