Who seeks treatment after a traumatic event and who does not? A review of findings on mental health service utilization.
This review aimed to identify factors associated with seeking treatment from mental health services after a traumatic event. Databases of literature were searched in a systematic manner and 24 relevant articles were found. Although many of the findings are inconsistent, the most important factors associated with treatment seeking appear to be a higher level of psychopathology, the type and level of the traumatic event, and sociodemographic characteristics, in particular female gender. Even though the evidence is insufficient to guide service development, suggestions for future research are made. The methodological quality of research should be improved to establish whether the inconsistency of findings reflects methodological artefacts or true differences between different samples and contexts.
Gavrilovic
Jelena Jankovic
JJ
Unit for Social and Community Psychiatry, Barts and the London School of Medicine, Queen Mary, University of London, United Kingdom.
Schützwohl
Matthias
M
Fazel
Mina
M
Priebe
Stefan
S
D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000523:psychology; D040921:Stress Disorders, Traumatic / Q000628:therapy*