Published 17 August 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b3361
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b3361

News

Recession could increase alcohol and drug addiction and mental health problems, watchdog warns

Adrian O’Dowd

1 Margate

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The economic recession could lead to a rise in the number of people with alcohol or mental health problems and in drug misuse, says a report from one of the United Kingdom’s main watchdog organisations.

The public services watchdog the Audit Commission has warned that the recession will start to have a "second wave" effect on the UK, triggering social problems.

Its new report focuses on local government but gives details on how some health problems will also be exacerbated by the economic downturn.

The report is based on academic research, a survey of chief executives of local authorities in England that was carried out in May and June (with a 55% response rate), structured interviews in more than half of England’s single tier and county councils, and in-depth case study visits to 11 local areas.

Findings from the survey showed that of the councils that dealt with mental health, . . . [Full text of this article]


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ