Long term life dissatisfaction and subsequent major depressive disorder and poor mental health

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Poor mental health, especially due to depression, is one of the main public health problems. Early indicators of poor mental health in general population are needed. This study examined the relationship between long-term life dissatisfaction and subsequent mental health, including major depressive disorder.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>Health questionnaires were sent to a randomly selected population-based sample in 1998 and repeated in 1999 and 2001. In 2005, a clinically studied sub-sample (n = 330) was composed of subjects with (n = 161) or without (n = 169) repeatedly reported adverse mental symptoms at all three previous data collection times. Clinical symptom assessments were performed with several psychometric scales: life satisfaction (<b>LS</b>), depression (<b>HDRS, BDI</b>), hopelessness (<b>HS</b>), mental distress (<b>GHQ</b>), dissociative experiences (<b>DES</b>), and alexithymia (<b>TAS</b>). The long-term life dissatisfaction burden was calculated by summing these life satisfaction scores in 1998, 1999, 2001 and dividing the sum into tertiles. Psychiatric diagnoses were confirmed by SCID-I for DSM-IV in 2005. Logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the studied relationship.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The previous life dissatisfaction burden associated with adverse socio-demographic, life style and clinical factors. In adjusted logistic regression analyses, it was independently and strongly associated with subsequent major depressive disorder in 2005, even when the concurrent LS score in 2005 was included in the model. Excluding those with reported major depressive disorder in 1999 did not alter this finding.</p> <p>Limitations</p> <p>MDD in 1999 was based on self-reports and not on structured interview and LS data in 2001-2005 was not available.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The life satisfaction burden is significantly related to major depressive disorder and poor mental health, both in cross-sectional and longitudinal settings.</p

The stability of life satisfaction in a 15-year follow-up of adult Finns healthy at baseline

BACKGROUND: While physical health has improved considerably over recent decades in Finland, the disease burden of mental health, especially that of depression, has become increasingly demanding. However, we lack long-term data on the natural course of subjective well-being in the general population. The aim of this study was to investigate the long-term course of self-reported life satisfaction. METHODS: This was a 15-year prospective cohort study on a nationwide sample of adult Finnish twins (N = 9679), aged 18–45 and healthy at baseline, who responded to postal questionnaires in 1975, 1981 and 1990 including a 4-item life satisfaction scale (happiness/easiness/interest in life and feelings of loneliness). Life satisfaction score (range: 4–20) was classified into three categories: satisfied (4–6), intermediate (7–11) and dissatisfied group (12–20). The associations between life satisfaction scores during the follow-up were studied with linear/logistic regression. RESULTS: Moderate stability and only a slight effect of age or birth-cohort on mean life satisfaction score (LS) were detected. In 1990, 56% of all and 31% of the dissatisfied remained in the same LS category as at baseline. Only 5.9% of the study subjects changed from being satisfied to dissatisfied or vice versa. Correlations between continuous scores (1975, 1981 and 1990) were 0.3–0.4. Baseline dissatisfaction (compared to satisfaction) predicted dissatisfaction in 1981 (OR = 10.4; 95%CI 8.3–13.1) and 1990 (5.6; 4.6–6.8). Multiple adjustments decreased the risk only slightly. CONCLUSIONS: Life satisfaction in adult Finns was moderately stable during 15 years. Among an identifiable group (i.e. the dissatisfied) life dissatisfaction may become persistent, which places them at a greater risk of adverse health outcomes

National Income and Income Inequality, Family Affluence and Life Satisfaction Among 13 year Old Boys and Girls: A Multilevel Study in 35 Countries

Adolescence is a critical period where many patterns of health and health behaviour are formed. The objective of this study was to investigate cross-national variation in the relationship between family affluence and adolescent life satisfaction, and the impact of national income and income inequality on this relationship. Data from the 2006 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children: WHO collaborative Study (N = 58,352 across 35 countries) were analysed using multilevel linear and logistic regression analyses for outcome measures life satisfaction score and binary high/low life satisfaction. National income and income inequality were associated with aggregated life satisfaction score and prevalence of high life satisfaction. Within-country socioeconomic inequalities in life satisfaction existed even after adjustment for family structure. This relationship was curvilinear and varied cross-nationally. Socioeconomic inequalities were greatest in poor countries and in countries with unequal income distribution. GDP (PPP US$) and Gini did not explain between country variance in socioeconomic inequalities in life satisfaction. The existence of, and variation in, within-country socioeconomic inequalities in adolescent life satisfaction highlights the importance of identifying and addressing mediating factors during this life stage

Determinants of quality of life in children with psychiatric disorders

Objective: To assess factors that, in addition to childhood psychopathology, are associated with Quality of Life (QoL) in children with psychiatric problems. Methods: In a referred sample of 252 8 to 18-year-olds, information concerning QoL, psychopathology and a broad range of child, parent, and family/ social network factors was obtained from children, parents, teachers and clinicians. Results: Poor child, parent, and clinician reported QoL was associated with child psychopathology, but given the presence of psychopathology, also with child factors, such as low self-esteem, and poor social skills, and family/social network factors, such as poor family functioning, and poor social support. In multiple linear regression analyses the importance of parent factors, such as parenting stress, was almost negligible. Conclusion: To increase QoL of children with psychiatric problems, treatment of symptoms is important, but outcome might improve if treatment is also focussed on other factors that may affect QoL. Results are discussed in relation to current treatment programs. © Springer 2005

Abundance and scarcity: classical theories of money, bank balance sheets and business models, and the British restriction of 1797‐1818.

The thesis looks through the lens of bank balance sheet accounting to investigate the structural change in the British banking system between 1780 and 1832, and how classical quantity theorists of money attempted to respond to the ensuing financialisation of the wartime economy with its growing reliance on credit funded with paper-based instruments (the ‘Vansittart system’ of war finance). The thesis combines contributions to three separate fields to construct a holistic historical example of the challenges faced by monetary economists when ‘modelling’ financial innovation, credit growth, ‘fringe’ banking, and agent incentives – at a time of radical experimentation: the suspension of the 80-year-old gold standard (“the Restriction”). First, critical text analysis of the history of economics argues that the 1809-10 debate between Ricardo and Bosanquet at the peak of the credit boom, bifurcated classical theory into two timeless competing policy paradigms advocating the ‘Scarcity’ or ‘Abundance’ of money relative to exchange transactions. The competing hypotheses regarding the role of money and credit are identified and the rest of the thesis examines the archival evidence for each. Second, the core of the thesis contributes to the historical literature on banking in relation to money by reconstructing a taxonomy of bank business models, their relationships with the London inter-bank settlement system, and their responses to the Restriction - drawing on some 17,000 mostly new data points collected from the financial records of London and Country banks. The final section contributes to the economic history of money by constructing aggregated views of total bank liabilities from the firm-level data, scaled to recently available British GDP estimates. These are examined to establish (with hindsight) the relative merits and lacuna of the competing theoretical hypotheses postulated by political economists. It was the period of deleveraging after 1810 that revealed the lacuna of both paradigms