Medical Debt Common in Adults With Depression, Anxiety

MONDAY, July 22, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Medical debt is common among adults with depression and anxiety and may contribute to the mental health treatment gap, according to a study published online July 17 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Kyle J. Moon, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, and colleagues estimated the prevalence of medical debt among U.S. adults with depression and anxiety and its association with delayed and forgone mental health care. Analysis included data from 27,651 adult participants in the 2022 National Health Interview Survey.

The researchers found that medical debt was more common among adults with lifetime depression (19.9 versus 8.6 percent), lifetime...