Consumer Affairs: Socioeconomic status may affect response to depression treatment

A new University of Cincinnati study found that patients with lower incomes and less education tend to have poorer outcomes related to treatment for depression.

Led by Jeffrey Mills, PhD, and Jeffrey Strawn, MD, the UC cross-college collaborative research was recently published in the journal Psychiatric Services.

Using a dataset of 665 patients from a depression treatment clinical trial called CO-MED, the team’s analysis found patients who were non-white improved 11.3% less compared to white patients. Those who were unemployed saw 6.6% less improvement compared to employed patients. Compared to patients in the 75th percentile of income distribution, patients having income at the 25th percentile reduced improvement by 4.8%.

The research was recently featured in articles for Consumer Affairs, Reuters Health and Healthing, a Canadian health website, as well as a Spectrum News segment.

Read the Consumer Affairs story.

Read the Healthing story.

Read the Reuters Health story.

Watch the Spectrum News segment.

Read more about the research.

Featured photo at top of Jeffrey Strawn, left, and Jeffrey Mills, right. Photo/University of Cincinnati.