Poverty Linked to Anxiety, Mood Disorders
People with low incomes are more likely to suffer mental illness, a new study suggests.
It also found that a decrease in income is associated with increased risk of anxiety, substance abuse and mood disorders.
Researchers analyzed data from nearly 35,000 adults aged 20 and older who took part in the U.S. National Epidemiologic Survey of Alcohol and Related Conditions. The participants were interviewed twice, three years apart.
“Participants with household income of less than $20,000 per year were at increased risk of incident mood disorders during the three-year follow-up period in comparison with those with income of $70,000 or more per year,” wrote Dr. Jitender Sareen, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Manitoba in Canada, and colleagues.
Participants whose household income dropped between interviews were also at an increased risk of mood and anxiety disorders and substance abuse compared to participants whose income didn’t drop.
The research did not show that poverty or a drop in income causes mental illness, only that people with low incomes are more likely to experience it than those with higher incomes.
There was also no association between a rise in income and increased or decreased risk of mental health problems.
The findings, published in the March issue of the Archives of Psychiatry, could prove important in terms of public health.
“Most important, the findings suggest that income below $20,000 per year is associated with substantial psychopathologic characteristics and that there is a need for targeted interventions to treat and prevent mental illness in this low-income sector of the population,” the researchers concluded. “The findings also suggest that adults with reduction in income are at increased risk of mood and substance use disorders.”
Is coming to America bad for your mental health?
A new report from a mental health study of Mexican immigrants has found that immigrants to the United States face more than four times the risk of depression as those who don’t immigrate, and that in general, coming to the U.S. increases their risk of depression, anxiety and other problems.
Yesterday the Archives of General Psychiatry published the results of a cross-national study conducted by UC Davis and Mexico’s National Institute of Psychiatry. The study analyzed data from interviews with approximately 550 male and female Mexican-born immigrants and approximately 2,500 peers who remained in Mexico, comparing the U.S. group with same-aged, non-immigrant relatives. From the UC Davis website:
It found that during the period following arrival in the United States, Mexican migrants were nearly twice as likely (odds ratio of 1.8) to experience a first-onset depressive or anxiety disorder as their nonmigrant peers. However, the elevated risk among migrants occurred almost entirely in the two youngest migrant groups, those between 18 and 25 years old and those between 26 and 35 at the time of the study.
The greatest risk was experienced by the youngest migrants, who were 18-to-25 years old at the time of the study. Their odds of suffering from any depressive disorder relative to non-migrants was 4.4 — or nearly four-and-one-half times greater — compared with 1.2 in the entire sample.
Recent news reports have focused on the mental health of the children of immigrants, such as Latina teens, who have a high rate of attempted suicide. But being a stranger in a strange land brings with it its own tremendous stresses – learning a new language, economic anxiety, raising children in a foreign environment – that can affect mental, emotional and physical health.
From the American Psychiatric Association:
Many older Hispanic Americans find the strain of acculturation overwhelming. Their traditional values and beliefs are often at odds with the new culture, they may lack family support and may face language barriers.
It’s not just Latinos that are vulnerable, as many Asian immigrants, as well as their children, find themselves facing similar stressors. And among refugees in general, the stress of acculturation can be compounded by baggage from traumatic events back home.
A study funded by the National Institutes of Health found that after more than after two decades in the United States, Cambodian refugees who fled their country after enduring the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge experienced a staggering degree of post-traumatic stress disorder. Of a sample of almost 500 people in the Long Beach area, many described experiencing starvation, forced labor, the murder of a relative or friend and other trauma. From the 2005 report:
Sixty-two percent suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and 51 percent from depression in the past year — six-to-seventeen times the national average for adults. The more trauma they endured, the worse their symptoms.
While many immigrants are susceptible to mental health issues, they are at the same time less likely to take advantage of mental health services. According to one Western Journal of Medicine report, “social stigma, shame, and saving face often prevent Asians from seeking behavioral health care.” The same holds true for Latinos, who use mental health services “far less than other ethnic and racial groups,” according to the American Psychiatric Association’s website.
As with Asian immigrants, Latinos face language barriers, as well as a lack of access to appropriate care and cultural roadblocks that include fear of being stigmatized. A 2005 National Council of La Raza white paper on mental health disparities recommended public policy changes, among them better advocacy efforts and funding for care as well as “culturally- and linguistically-relevant” mental health services.
Records: Krier Had History of Mental Illness, Substance Abuse
A rural Sigourney man who fatally shot a deputy and was killed during a standoff Monday battled bipolar disorder for three decades and was hospitalized recently for the disease, his family said.
Jeffrey Alan Krier, 53, also suffered from alcoholism and drug abuse since at least the mid-1990s, according to court records filed in Wapello County.
“While Jeff’s mental illness may have contributed to the tragedy it in no way provides comfort or solace to the many who have been impacted by his actions,” Krier’s family said in a prepared statement Tuesday.
Krier was accused of shooting Keokuk County Sheriff’s Deputy Eric Stein in the head with a shotgun Tuesday. The Iowa State Patrol Tactical Unit shot and killed Krier after a three-hour standoff that followed Stein’s death.
Krier did not have a permit to carry weapons, the Iowa Department of Public Safety reported.
“Jeff was a loving brother who struggled with mental illness for the past three decades. He was diagnosed as bipolar and had tremendous difficulty managing his illness,” said Krier’s brother, Sam, and sister, Debbie, in the statement.
Jeff Krier had been hospitalized for seven days in March, his siblings said. It was not immediately clear whether he voluntarily entered the hospital or was involuntarily committed.
Krier had not worked in 15 years because of his mental illness and lived with his parents, Glen and Roselyn Krier, near Sigourney until his parents went to live at a nursing home in March.
Krier’s parents agreed to take responsibility for him following a rash of arrests in the mid-1990s including charges of carrying weapons, stalking, assault and drunken driving. He was found not guilty of many of the charges by reason of insanity.
He was charged Nov. 8, 1995, with carrying weapons after officers stopped him while he was driving a tractor with a manure spreader on the back near Ottumwa. Officers seized a loaded Ruger 9mm pistol that Krier had concealed in his pocket, court records states. Officers also found marijuana in Krier’s shirt pocket, records state.
Krier was charged with stalking, a Class D felony, in December 1996 based on allegations he called, visited and sent letters to an Ottumwa woman, causing her fear, records state.
“Victim has had to take a very large straight knife from the defendant in the recent week within he was going to be involved in a fight with another person,” according to the criminal complaint.
In another incident, Krier was charged with assault on a peace officer based on allegations he hit an officer in the arm and kicking another in the leg on Dec. 8, 1999.
Krier spent time at the Mount Pleasant Mental Health Institute and at least one drug treatment program, court records state. But on Oct. 16, 1997, an 8th District Court Judge released him from custody, in part, because his parents said they would house and support their son.
“The defendant currently suffers a mental illness,” Judge Dan Morrison wrote in the order. “The defendant does not currently represent a danger to himself or others.”
Krier told corrections officials in 1997 that he had a “22-year history of mixed chemical abuse” that included alcohol, marijuana and methamphetamine, according to March 25, 1997, letter to the court.
Psychiatrists who evaluated Krier during court proceedings said he suffered from bipolar disorder and akathisia, or restless leg syndrome. Dr. James Fleming, who worked at the Highland Place Care Facility in Ottumwa, said in a 1997 report that Krier was compliant with his medications and was not dangerous.
“It is my understanding that Mr. Krier wants to live with his parents in Sigourney, Iowa, (and) and look for work and his parents are in agreement with that,” Fleming wrote. “I do not oppose this proposal, but do realize that the psychiatric services available in Keokuk County are somewhat limited and I will be willing to provide this service at our outpatient clinic.”
Krier was born in Sigourney and graduated from Sigourney High School in 1976, his family said. He studied aircraft mechanics at Indian Hills Community College in 1986.
A SourceMedia Group reporter spoke on the phone Monday night with a Roselyn who lives in the Oskaloosa nursing home where Krier’s parents reside.
The woman seemed confused, had a hard time hearing and was unable to answer questions. During a subsequent phone call, a nursing home employee said the Kriers did not want to speak with the news media.
Krier’s neice, Laura Brigman, of Woodlands, Texas, started to cry when asked Tuesday about her uncle. “Right now, I don’t think they know what to say,” she told a reporter about Krier’s immediate family.
