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Citation |
Zisman-Ilani Y. Psychiatr. Serv. 2023; 74(5): e445. |
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Copyright |
(Copyright © 2023, American Psychiatric Association) |
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DOI |
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PMID |
37122268 |
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Abstract |
Depression has long been a leading cause of disability. Although several depression treatment options are available, including in community and primary care settings, many individuals experiencing depressive symptoms, particularly those from marginalized and racial-ethnic minority groups, do not engage in any form of depression care. Using data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), Kaur et al. (1) show in this issue that disparities in treatments for depression (and other mental health conditions) not only exist but persist over years. Kaur and colleagues analyzed a sample of NSDUH data collected between 2005 and 2019 that included 49,791 responses from adults with a past-year major depressive episode. Over the 14-year period, depression rates increased steadily among all racial-ethnic groups. Yet use of depression treatments remained lower for individuals from racial-ethnic minority groups than for Whites. This finding is even more alarming given that the reported data were collected before the COVID-19 pandemic, which, by itself, has contributed to worsened depression symptoms in the general population, to reduced availability of traditional mental health and primary care services, and to increased reliance on telehealth services, which are not available to all and the effectiveness of which has yet to be determined or fully understood... Language: en |
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Keywords |
Humans; Socioeconomic Factors; United States; *Depression/therapy; *Healthcare Disparities |