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Perception of Unmet Need after Seeking Treatment for a Past Year Major Depressive Episode: Results from the 2018 National Survey of Drug Use and Health

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Abstract

Depression, a leading cause of disability and mortality world-wide that one in five U.S. adults are estimated to experience in their lifetime, presents special complications in treatment. While it is well-recognized that there are several barriers to even obtaining treatment for depression, once an individual obtains treatment they may not receive the type of care that they need. In order to examine common factors of those who experienced an unmet treatment need for depression despite seeking mental health treatment, we examined data from the 2018 National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). We cross-sectionally compared two groups of individuals who both met criteria for a past year Major Depressive Episode (MDE) and sought mental health treatment, however one group reported an unmet treatment need and the other did not. Results indicate a variety of personal identity and social factors associated with perceiving an unmet treatment need, including age, race/ethnicity, sexual attraction, marital status, poverty level, health insurance, substance misuse, global health, and role impairment. This study contributes to the literature by providing further support for disparities in depression treatment at the consumer, provider, and systemic levels that have downstream effects for health equity policy and public health promotion.

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Data Availability

The 2018 National Survey of Drug use and Health is a data set available for public use from the Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA

    Aaron D. Hunt & Leah M. Adams

  2. Women and Gender Studies Program, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA

    Leah M. Adams

Authors
  1. Aaron D. Hunt
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  2. Leah M. Adams
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Ethics declarations

All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to disclose. The 2018 National Survey of Drug use and Health is a data set available for public use from the Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality. All participants gave an informed consent for research, and data collection was performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Hunt, A.D., Adams, L.M. Perception of Unmet Need after Seeking Treatment for a Past Year Major Depressive Episode: Results from the 2018 National Survey of Drug Use and Health. Psychiatr Q 92, 1271–1281 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-021-09913-y

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