The psychological cost of insecurity: Local labour markets and the geography of antidepressant use in England”

Event Date: 27 February 2019

Speaker: Dr Neil Lee, London School of Economics and Political Science

Location: Strathclyde Business School, Cathedral Wing, CW406a

Time: 4.15pm

About the speaker: Neil is an Associate Professor of Economic Geography at the LSE. He is also Director of the MSc in Local Economic Development and the BSc in Geography with Economics. He joined the Department in 2013, having previously been Head of Socio-Economic Research at The Work Foundation. He holds a PhD in Economic Geography from the LSE and was a visiting scholar at TCLab, Columbia University.

His research considers cities, economic change and the social dimensions of innovation. He is particularly interested in the distribution of the proceeds of growth and the links between innovation and inequality. He has also published on the economics of the creative industries and the link between cultural diversity, innovation and urban economies. 

Abstract: Between 2010 and 2016, the number of antidepressant prescriptions in England increased by almost 50%. This change was highly geographically uneven, leading some to speculate that it was caused, in part, by the changing labour market. In particular, aggressive welfare to work policies may have combined with poor quality employment in less affluent local labour markets, leading to a general state of anxiety in these areas. This paper addresses this issue using a dataset of all NHS prescriptions offered by GP surgeries in England and a series of panel data models. In contrast to common portrayals, we  show that increased antidepressant use has not been restricted to deprived areas, and that anti-depressant use has often risen more quickly in affluent areas. However, levels are still higher in areas of relative deprivation, and part of the increase can be attributed to precarious self-employment in areas of weak labour market demand.

Published: 21 February 2019