Publications (33) View all
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Article: Mental health in ACOs: missed opportunities and low-hanging fruit.
The American journal of managed care 03/2013; 19(3):180-4. · 2.46 Impact Factor -
Article: Mental health in american colleges and universities: variation across student subgroups and across campuses.
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ABSTRACT: We estimated the prevalence and correlates of mental health problems among college students in the United States. In 2007 and 2009, we administered online surveys with brief mental health screens to random samples of students at 26 campuses nationwide. We used sample probability weights to adjust for survey nonresponse. A total of 14,175 students completed the survey, corresponding to a 44% participation rate. The prevalence of positive screens was 17.3% for depression, 4.1% for panic disorder, 7.0% for generalized anxiety, 6.3% for suicidal ideation, and 15.3% for nonsuicidal self-injury. Mental health problems were significantly associated with sex, race/ethnicity, religiosity, relationship status, living on campus, and financial situation. The prevalence of conditions varied substantially across the campuses, although campus-level variation was still a small proportion of overall variation in student mental health. The findings offer a starting point for identifying individual and contextual factors that may be useful to target in intervention strategies.The Journal of nervous and mental disease 01/2013; 201(1):60-7. · 1.77 Impact Factor -
Article: Social contagion of mental health: Evidence from college roommates.
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ABSTRACT: From a policy standpoint, the spread of health conditions in social networks is important to quantify, because it implies externalities and possible market failures in the consumption of health interventions. Recent studies conclude that happiness and depression may be highly contagious across social ties. The results may be biased, however, because of selection and common shocks. We provide unbiased estimates by using exogenous variation from college roommate assignments. Our findings are consistent with no significant overall contagion of mental health and no more than small contagion effects for specific mental health measures, with no evidence for happiness contagion and modest evidence for anxiety and depression contagion. The weakness of the contagion effects cannot be explained by avoidance of roommates with poor mental health or by generally low social contact among roommates. We also find that similarity of baseline mental health predicts the closeness of roommate relationships, which highlights the potential for selection biases in studies of peer effects that do not have a clearly exogenous source of variation. Overall, our results suggest that mental health contagion is lower, or at least more context specific, than implied by the recent studies in the medical literature. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Health Economics 10/2012; · 2.12 Impact Factor -
Article: Attitudes and beliefs about treatment among college students with untreated mental health problems.
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ABSTRACT: This study estimated attitudes and beliefs about treatment in a national sample of college students with untreated mental health problems. A retrospective analysis of the 2007 and 2009 Healthy Minds Study, an online survey of college students in the United States, was conducted. The random sample included 13,105 survey participants from 26 institutions. Students with untreated depression, anxiety, or suicidal ideation (N=2,350) were classified by attitudes about treatment (stigma), beliefs about effectiveness of treatment, and perceived need for treatment. A majority (65%) of untreated students reported low stigma and positive beliefs about treatment effectiveness, including 42% who perceived a need for help and 23% who did not. For a large proportion of young people with untreated mental illness, attitudes and knowledge about mental illness may no longer be among the main barriers to help seeking. Research and practice need to consider new approaches for understanding and influencing help-seeking behavior.Psychiatric services (Washington, D.C.) 07/2012; 63(7):711-3. · 2.81 Impact Factor -
Article: Help seeking for mental health on college campuses: review of evidence and next steps for research and practice.
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ABSTRACT: This article reviews what is known about help-seeking behavior for mental health problems in college populations and offers suggestions for the next steps that could be undertaken to improve knowledge and practice in this area. Our review suggests that traditional barriers, such as stigma, can only partially explain the high prevalence of untreated disorders. We discuss the conclusions and limitations of research on campus-based intervention strategies, including anti-stigma campaigns, screening programs, and gatekeeper trainings. In proposing new directions for research and practice, we consider insights from research on other health behaviors (e.g., diet and exercise) as well as innovative ideas from behavioral economics and cognitive psychology regarding behavior change.Harvard Review of Psychiatry 07/2012; 20(4):222-32. · 3.05 Impact Factor
