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PAPERS:
Petros Skapinakis, Scott Weich, Glyn Lewis, Nicola Singleton, and Ricardo Araya
Socio-economic position and common mental disorders: Longitudinal study in the general population in the UK
The British Journal of Psychiatry 2006; 189: 109-117 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]

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Electronic letters published:

Subjective measures and common mental disorders: Maurits Van den Noort, Peggy Bosch, and Kenneth Hugdahl. (9 August 2006)

Subjective measures and common mental disorders 9 August 2006

Maurits Van den Noort,
Neuro and Rehabilitation Psychologist
Department of Biological and Medical Psychology, University of Bergen, N-5009, Bergen, Norway.,
Peggy Bosch, and Kenneth Hugdahl.
Send letter to journal:
Re: Subjective measures and common mental disorders

Maurits.Noort{at}psybp.uib.no Maurits Van den Noort, et al.

We read the article on socio-economic position and common mental disorders (Skapinakis et al, 2006) with interest. It was found that the socio-economic indicators were not significantly associated with an episode of common mental disorder at follow up. Whereas, subjective financial difficulties were independently associated with depression. We totally agree with the authors’ conclusion that not only objective, but also subjective measures are important from a clinical perspective. However, until now, these subjective measures are often overlooked.
Therefore, more research needs to be done on this topic since subjective measures could give a better understanding of how socio- economic circumstances contribute to common mental disorders. Finally, these studies can perhaps also explain why the results of previous studies, focusing on the relation between objective measures of socio- economic position and common mental disorders, are mixed (Muntaner et al, 2004).
References
Muntaner, C., Eaton, W.W., Miech, R., et al (2004) Socioeconomic position and major mental disorders. Epidemiologic Reviews, 26, 53-62.
Skapinakis, P., Weich, S., Lewis, G., et al (2006) Socio-economic position and common mental disorders: Longitudinal study in the general population in the UK. British Journal of Psychiatry, 189, 109-117.
Declaration of Interests: None