Abstract
BackgroundCountries in recession experience high unemployment rates and a decline in living conditions, which, it has been suggested, negatively influences their populations’ health. The present review examines the recent evidence of the possible association between economic recessions and mental health outcomes.MethodsLiterature review of records identified through Medline, PsycINFO, SciELO, and EBSCO Host. Only original research papers, published between 2004 and 2014, peer-reviewed, non-qualitative research, and reporting on associations between economic factors and proxies of mental health were considered.ResultsOne-hundred-one papers met the inclusion criteria. The evidence was consistent that economic recessions and mediators such as unemployment, income decline, and unmanageable debts are significantly associated with poor mental wellbeing, increased rates of common mental disorders, substance-related disorders, and suicidal behaviours.ConclusionOn the basis of a thorough analysis of the selected investigations, we conclude that periods of economic recession are possibly associated with a higher prevalence of mental health problems, including common mental disorders, substance disorders, and ultimately suicidal behaviour. Most of the research is based on cross-sectional studies, which seriously limits causality inferences. Conclusions are summarised, taking into account international policy recommendations concerning the cost-effective measures that can possibly reduce the occurrence of negative mental health outcomes in populations during periods of economic recession.
Highlights
Countries in recession experience high unemployment rates and a decline in living conditions, which, it has been suggested, negatively influences their populations’ health
The remaining 7351 papers were screened by two independent reviewers through their titles and abstracts, and the subsequent filtering was performed on the basis of the following inclusion criteria: not being duplicates, written in English or Portuguese, were non-qualitative research, and reported associations between recession or socioeconomic terms and mental health outcomes
The number of papers excluded was a consequence of combinations of search keywords such as “crisis” and “mental health” or “suicide” that resulted in papers not relevant to the study objective
Summary
Countries in recession experience high unemployment rates and a decline in living conditions, which, it has been suggested, negatively influences their populations’ health. Nonethless, some authors have argued that associations between contracting economies and levels of well-being may show mixed patterns of both positive and negative impacts [14]. This current recession is likely to aggravate and boost mental health problems through growing socioeconomic risk factors such as unemployment, financial strain, debts, and job-related problems [3]. People facing these major life changes are more prone to mental ill-health [15,16,17,18]. It has been theorised that economic pressure and unemployment have a devastating impact on families, in particular children, since the family is the most important context for their healthy development [19, 20]
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