(Press-News.org) CORVALLIS, Ore. – People who experience a physical health problem, from diabetes and back pain to cancer or heart disease, are three times more likely to seek mental health care than patients who report having no physical ailment, according to a new study by Oregon State University researchers.
The study, which is now online in the journal Health Services Research, indicates there is a need for better-coordinated care between physical and mental health providers. It is the first nationally representative study that statistically shows a major link between physical health and mental health
"I see this study as a way to set benchmark data so that policy makers can determine how to best transition to a system that hopefully will coordinate physical and mental care," said lead author Jangho Yoon, a health policy economist with OSU who specializes in mental health policy issues.
"The Affordable Care Act is supposed to have better coordinated care and interplay between physical and mental health providers, so this has really important implications because before our study, baseline data didn't exist."
Yoon used data from 2004 and 2005 Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys to identify more than 6,000 adults for his study. He only used people who had not reported a previous physical or mental health condition. Compared to those who did not have a physical health problem, people who developed a physical health condition had a threefold increase in the likelihood of seeking mental health care.
Interestingly, even after he controlled for those who developed the most catastrophic medical conditions, such as cancer, stroke and heart attack, he found the same results.
"The interplay between our physical and mental health has long been suspected," Yoon said. "When I have back pain, I feel stressed. And if it impacts my ability to work, or to do my usual activities, then I can feel upset or even a bit depressed. But no large scale studies existed that showed the statistical proof of this correlation."
Yoon, who is an assistant professor in the College of Public Health and Human Sciences at OSU, said the study included people who sought mental health providers, prescriptions for mental health issues, or both.
He said the study also found that those patients who said they perceived their health issue as severe were more likely to seek mental health services.
The researchers said a simple screener survey, such as the 16-question Substance Abuse/Mental Illness Screener (SAMISS), used in a busy clinical setting could be an effective tool to help health providers attain proper mental health treatment for their patients.
"This is a win-win," Yoon said. "There is a chance of cost-savings in our medical system if we identify potential mental health problems early, before they become more severe. And more importantly, coordinated care and early intervention leads to better health outcomes, and better care for the patient."
INFORMATION:
Stephanie Bernell of OSU's health management and policy program, contributed to the study.
END
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Frequent abuse by a parent can increase a child's cancer risk in adulthood, and the effects are especially significant when mothers abuse their daughters and fathers abuse their sons, according to new research from Purdue University.
"People often say that children are resilient and they'll bounce back, but we found that there are events that can have long-term consequences on adult health," said Kenneth Ferraro, distinguished professor of sociology and director of Purdue's Center on Aging and the Life Course. "In this case, people who were frequently ...
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Scientists searching for clues to understand how superweeds obtain resistance to the popular herbicide glyphosate may have been missing a critical piece of information, a Purdue University study shows.
Glyphosate, the active ingredient in the weed killer sold under the name RoundUp, is the most widely used herbicide in the United States, but some plants have grown resistant to it. This has caused farmers to turn to additional herbicides. While the mechanisms that have led to resistance are not fully known, Bill Johnson, a professor of weed science; ...
Drexel University engineers continue to drive research into the use of carbon nanotubes, straw-like structures that are more than 1,000 times thinner than a single human hair. Their most recent development uses the tiny tubes to separate liquids within a solution.
The researchers have shown that individual carbon nanotubes can act as a separation channel that would force two differing molecules to separate as easily as oil and water. For example, the molecules that comprise two chemically distinct liquids will interact differently with the walls of the nanotube as the ...
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — For years, the U.S. Navy has employed human divers, equipped with sonar cameras, to search for underwater mines attached to ship hulls. The Navy has also trained dolphins and sea lions to search for bombs on and around vessels. While animals can cover a large area in a short amount of time, they are costly to train and care for, and don't always perform as expected.
In the last few years, Navy scientists, along with research institutions around the world, have been engineering resilient robots for minesweeping and other risky underwater missions. The ...
Johns Hopkins tissue engineers have used tiny, artificial fiber scaffolds thousands of times smaller than a human hair to help coax stem cells into developing into cartilage, the shock-absorbing lining of elbows and knees that often wears thin from injury or age. Reporting online June 4 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, investigators produce an important component of cartilage in both laboratory and animal models. While the findings are still years away from use in people, the researchers say the results hold promise for devising new techniques to ...
WASHINGTON — Changing the way that Medicare payments are adjusted to account for regional variations in the cost of providing care as recommended by a previous report from the Institute of Medicine would result in payment increases for some hospitals and practitioners and decreases for others, concludes the Phase II report from the IOM study. Geographic adjustments should be used to ensure the accuracy of payments, said the committee that wrote the report, but they are not optimal tools to tackle larger national policy goals such as improving access to care in medically ...
ERIE, Pa. - Just as the globalization of trade and travel is rapidly evolving, so is the globalization of infectious diseases and the need for cooperative approaches to detect, prevent and control them, according to Dr. David Dausey, chair of the Mercyhurst University Public Health Department.
The outbreaks of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and avian influenza H5N1 in recent years showed how infectious diseases can significantly impact national economies and exposed the need for cooperation in detecting and controlling disease to protect populations and economies.
Such ...
AURORA, Colo. (July 17, 2012) –Researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine have found a drug that boosts memory function in those with Down syndrome, a major milestone in the treatment of this genetic disorder that could significantly improve quality of life.
"Before now there had never been any positive results in attempts to improve cognitive abilities in persons with Down syndrome through medication," said Alberto Costa, MD, Ph.D., who led the four- year study at the CU School of Medicine. "This is the first time we have been able to move the needle ...
PASADENA, Calif.—Scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) pioneered the study of the link between irregularities in the immune system and neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism a decade ago. Since then, studies of postmortem brains and of individuals with autism, as well as epidemiological studies, have supported the correlation between alterations in the immune system and autism spectrum disorder.
What has remained unanswered, however, is whether the immune changes play a causative role in the development of the disease or are merely a side ...
PHILADELPHIA (July 17, 2012)— The combination of obesity and vitamin D deficiency may put people at even greater risk of insulin resistance than either factor alone, according to new research from the Drexel University School of Public Health recently published early online in the journal Diabetes Care. Insulin resistance is a major risk factor for Type 2 diabetes, a condition that affects 25.6 million adults and is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States.
"Vitamin D insufficiency and obesity are individual risk factors for insulin resistance and diabetes," ...
