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Psychotropic Drug Consumption and Employment Status in Time of Economic Crisis (2007–2011)

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Abstract

Psychiatric disorders and in particular depression have increased during the “Great Recession”. The aim of this study was to investigate the consumption of psychotropic drugs in people who lost their permanent employment, using administrative data. The study considered all of the subjects domiciled in Lombardy, Northern Italy, who lost a permanent employment between 2008 and 2010, not assuming psychotropic drugs and who did not find a new job within the following 12 months. The control group included people who did not lose permanent job in the study period, matched to the cases for gender, age, nationality, skill level, education and economic sector, using propensity score matching. The subjects who lost their permanent employment were 17 % more likely to receive one or more drug prescriptions than the controls, but the difference was significant only for males. Females, subjects aged >50 years, low skill level workers and Italians were more likely to have received a prescription for psychotropic drugs than respectively males, subjects aged 20–29 years or aged 30–39 years, low skill level workers and non-Italians. The average number of drugs prescribed for those who lost their job and those who continued working was respectively 2.9 and 3.1. In conclusion, losing a permanent job increases significantly psychotropic drugs consumption in males but not in females.

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Acknowledgments

Dr Ettore Beghi, MD, for his useful suggestions, Dr Matteo Fontana, PHD, for his help in statistical analysis, Mr. Kevin Smart, for English revision.

Funding

This paper has not been funded by any grant.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, via Cadore 48, 20052, Monza, MB, Italy

    Cesare Maria Cornaggia

  2. Department of Mental Health, ASST-Rhodense, via S. Tommaso d’Aquino 2, 20017, Rho, MI, Italy

    Massimiliano Beghi

  3. CRISP, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza Della Scienza 3, 20126, Milan, Italy

    Mario Mezzanzanica & Gloria Ronzoni

  4. Department of Economy and Statistics, University of Milano-Bicocca, via Bicocca degli Arcimboldi 8, 20126, Milan, Italy

    Giorgio Vittadini & Walter Maffenini

Authors
  1. Cesare Maria Cornaggia
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  2. Massimiliano Beghi
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  3. Mario Mezzanzanica
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  4. Gloria Ronzoni
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  5. Giorgio Vittadini
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  6. Walter Maffenini
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Massimiliano Beghi.

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Conflict of Interest

Cesare Maria Cornaggia, Massimiliano Beghi, Mario Mezzanzanica, Giorgio Vittadini and Walter Maffenini: declares that he has no conflict of interest. Gloria Ronzoni declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors. All data comes from a regional database (see methods section).

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Cornaggia, C.M., Beghi, M., Mezzanzanica, M. et al. Psychotropic Drug Consumption and Employment Status in Time of Economic Crisis (2007–2011). Psychiatr Q 88, 371–384 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-016-9448-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-016-9448-9

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