The link between unemployment and depressionThursday, May 29, 2014
by Jonny Clark


If you are like me, teaching unemployment starts with explanation of its causes and then moves on to its impact (before discussing possible solutions). I've always found the 'impact' aspect relatively straight-forward; it would seem students find the concept of loss of output and its consequences fairly logical. Discussing the long-term effects can be more difficult as young adults in full-time education may not be wholly empathetic towards the outcomes of job loss.
An interesting report came out from the Nuffield Trust recently (a copy is available from this link) about the increase in the prescription of antidepressants. The increase from 15 million items prescribed in 1995 to 40 million items in 2012 is quite large but the report shows that the biggest jump has come during the economic downturn since 2008. The report hypothesizes on a number of causes of this increase but does suggest a link between unemployment and the increase in prescription of antidepressants. Perhaps it isn't a quantum leap to illustrate that there is a relationship between unemployment and depression but evidence of this nature may be valuable when making a point about the impact of unemployment (and its cost to society as a whole) in the class or as part of an exam answer.