Poverty linked to mental health disorders, review finds

3 August 2010

Over the last 20 years, researchers have been debating whether common mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety, are linked to poverty in low- and middle-income countries. Now, a systematic review has strengthened evidence of such a link.

Funded by the UK Department for International Development, the review adds weight to calls to include mental health on the agenda of development agencies and international targets like the Millennium Development Goals.

Researchers, including Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow Professor Vikram Patel from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, looked at 115 studies, most of which reported positive associations between a range of poverty indicators and common mental disorders.

Some indicators, notably education, food insecurity, housing and financial stress, were strongly associated with mental health issues. Others, including income and employment, were less strongly linked.

Concluding, the researchers warn that development policies aimed at economic growth may not necessarily carry mental health benefits: "It is interventions that promote security, education, social welfare and health safety nets that are more likely to protect the mental health of populations, and allow for the full development of human potential".

Image: Slum children in Delhi. Credit: Wellcome Images

Reference

Lund C et al. Poverty and common mental disorders in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review. Soc Sci Med 2010;71(3):517-28.