I've mentioned several times what (to me) is the jaw-dropping conclusion of the CDC and the Harvard School of Public Health that if current trends continue, then by 2020 "Unipolar Major Depression" will be the 2nd leading cause of disability in adults, behind heart disease. Also, recently Paul Krugman and someone else on this list showed how growing up in poverty could impact neurological development; Herbert Gans, in_The War on the Poor_ goes on quite a bit about the psychological after-affect of years of poverty, in some places comparing it to the PTSD that soldiers suffer. (These are the sort of long-term psychological effects that someone like Mr. Adam Shepard, who ducked into self-imposed poverty for 10 months to debunk Barbara Ehrenreich, wouldn't experience.)
Additionally, it seems like anxiety, and especially stress, and the need for sedation/tranquilization through either the use of benzodiazepenes, or alcohol, etc., is increasing.
A lot of this data seems to indicate the economy, as it is, takes a massive toll on folks' mental well being. A lot of us already know this intuitively, I think, but it is nice research that's a bit more empirical.
-B.
Doug Henwood wrote:
"Financial Times - February 26, 2008
Bank crises kill, says study By Clive Cookson, Science Editor
A global banking crisis would kill tens of thousands of people through heart attacks brought on by stress and anxiety, Cambridge university researchers will warn today."