Mental Health Stigma / Prashant Bharadwaj, Mallesh M. Pai, Agne Suziedelyte.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bharadwaj, Prashant.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Pai, Mallesh M.

Suziedelyte, Agne.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w21240.

NBER working paper series no. w21240

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2015.

Summary:

Comparing self-reports to administrative data records on diagnosis and prescription drug use, we find that survey respondents under-report mental health conditions 36% of the time when asked about diagnosis and about 20% of the time when asked about prescription drug use. Survey respondents are significantly less likely to under-report other conditions such as diabetes or hypertension. This behavior is consistent with a model in which mental health illnesses are stigmatized and agents have incentives to hide such traits from others. We show that differential under-reporting of depression is correlated with age, gender, and ethnicity and that these characteristics also predict a lower probability of mental health treatment, suggesting that stigma can play an important role in determining health-seeking behavior.

Notes:

Print version record

June 2015.