title: Use of mental health services and persistence of emotional distress. An exploratory analysis.
abstract: This article probes the relationship between use of ambulatory mental health services and the persistence of mental problems. The analysis focuses on the difficulties in obtaining empirical estimates of the relationship between usage and persistence. A two-step estimator is used to take into account unobserved determinants of both usage and mental health status. This estimator is compared with a single equation model and a two-stage least-squares estimator. The study makes use of a community survey designed to estimate the prevalence of major mental disorders over a 12-month period. The survey consisted of three waves of interviews over the study year. The results indicate a significant decrease in the likelihood of mental problems persisting when treatment is received.
authors.affiliation: Health Services Research and Development Center, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205.
authors.forename: R G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Frank
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015142:Baltimore; D003156:Community Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D012107:Research Design; D013223:Statistics as Topic