Mental Health
Paper Session
Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023 10:15 AM - 12:15 PM (CST)
- Chair: Nishith Prakash, University of Connecticut
The Impact of PhD Studies on Mental Health Care Uptake
Abstract
Recent survey evidence indicates a high prevalence of mental health problems among PhD students. Our study contributes to this literature by using high-quality administrative data on diagnosed mental health problems to explore mental health care uptake among PhD students. Our data allow us to follow the mental health care uptake of each individual PhD student before, during and after the they start their doctoral studies as well as to compare the mental health care uptake of PhD students to that of other relevant groups.We find that PhD students, in the years preceding their PhD, are prescribed psychiatric medication at rates similar to a sample of highly educated individuals, and at lower rates than the general population. However, following the start of the PhD program, the rate of prescriptions increases for PhD students relative to the other two groups. This increase starts in the first year of PhD studies and grows continuously over the course of the PhD program. Our estimates suggest that by the fifth year of PhD studies, prescriptions of psychiatric medication among PhD students have increased by about 27% relative to the year before PhD start. While the absolute increase in mental health care uptake after starting PhD studies is similar for men and women, the relative increase is larger for men. Restricting our analysis to PhD students in economics, point estimates indicate a larger effect on mental health care uptake, albeit with substantially lower statistical power.
We also explore mechanisms driving these results, both in terms of individual level factors (e.g., family structure and socioeconomic background) and institutional factors (e.g., type of employment contract, gender composition of research fields and ratio of faculty/PhD students).
The Long-Run Effects of Psychotherapy on Depression, Beliefs, and Preferences
Abstract
We study the long-run effects of inexpensive psychotherapy interventions on mental health, self-confidence, economic preferences, and labor-market outcomes. We revisit two clinical trials in India that randomized depressed adults (n=775, 85% women) to a brief course of psychotherapy or a control condition. Four to five years later, we find substantially lower rates (12 percentage points) and severity (0.15 standard deviations) of depression in the treatment group. To measure impacts on self-confidence, participants performed a work task and estimated their performance relative to others. They then received noisy feedback about their relative performance. Therapy made people’s beliefs about themselves more accurate by reducing their tendency to react more to positive than negative feedback, thereby reducing overconfidence. Therapy also increased summary measures of altruism and patience, driven by changes in self-evaluations. We find no significant impacts on risk tolerance, employment, or consumption.Destigmatizing} Mental Health Increase Willingness to Seek Help? Experimental Evidence from Nepal
Abstract
We conducted a randomized control trial to study the impact of two information messages aimed at reducing the stigma associated with mental illness on the willingness to seek mental healthcare among adults in Nepal. The first intervention shares information about the prevalence of mental health issues and the efficacy of treatment. The second intervention shares information about the mental health struggles of a Nepali celebrity and how he benefited from treatment. We find three results. First, compared to a no information control group, both interventions increase participants' stated willingness to seek mental health treatment. This effect is driven by participants with high personal and anticipated stigma, less severe symptoms of depression and anxiety, and who hold high-masculinity beliefs. Second, the impact on participants' stated willingness to seek mental health treatment mirrors their willingness to pay for counseling. Third, participants are, on average, more likely to report willingness to seek help when the enumerator is female.Discussant(s)
Anna Louisa Bindler
,
University of Cologne
Krzysztof Karbownik
,
Emory University
Victoria Baranov
,
University of Melbourne
Kate Orkin
,
University of Oxford
JEL Classifications
- I1 - Health