Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
Department of Economics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Science. 2020 Dec 11;370(6522). doi: 10.1126/science.aay0214.
Why are people who live in poverty disproportionately affected by mental illness? We review the interdisciplinary evidence of the bidirectional causal relationship between poverty and common mental illnesses-depression and anxiety-and the underlying mechanisms. Research shows that mental illness reduces employment and therefore income, and that psychological interventions generate economic gains. Similarly, negative economic shocks cause mental illness, and antipoverty programs such as cash transfers improve mental health. A crucial step toward the design of effective policies is to better understand the mechanisms underlying these causal effects.
为什么生活贫困的人受精神疾病影响的比例较大？我们综述了贫困与常见精神疾病（抑郁和焦虑）之间存在双向因果关系的跨学科证据，以及潜在的机制。研究表明，精神疾病会降低就业机会和收入，而心理干预则会带来经济效益。同样，负面的经济冲击会导致精神疾病，而现金转移等扶贫计划则会改善精神健康。设计有效政策的关键步骤是更好地理解这些因果效应背后的机制。
