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Poverty causes mental health problems, and vice versa

New research shows that people who live in poverty are more likely to have depression and schizophrenia. Conversely, people with ADHD and schizophrenia are more likely to have money problems.

Susan Wichgers July 10, 2024, 5:31 PM

It seems like an open door: people with little money are more likely to have mental health problems, and people with mental health problems are more likely to live in poverty. But the discovery that one thing causes the other is “very new”, according to psychiatrist and researcher Marco Boks of the Amsterdam UMC.

Together with Italian and English researchers, Boks looked at a causal relationship between poverty and mental illness. “The discussion was: does mental health problems make you poor because you lose income as a result or because you have high costs for care? Or is there also a causal relationship between living in poverty and having mental health problems?”

Gene set

The researchers were able to uncover the latter in a study published on Wednesday in Nature Human Behaviour. In it, they were able to identify a gene set that is related to both poverty and mental health problems.

By the way, that does not mean that your income is determined by a “poverty gene,” explains Boks. “To make a comparison, it could also be that brown-eyed people are more likely to live in poverty. That does not mean that having brown eyes will cause you money problems, but we should take a close look at that group. Are they discriminated against more often, for example, or do they have poorer housing?”

The conclusion: those living in poverty have a higher risk of developing depression and schizophrenia. At the same time, people who have money problems actually have a lower risk of anorexia. “Anorexia is often seen as a disease of prosperity,” says Boks. “Some people are fighting that, because it also occurs in less prosperous countries. But our data shows that poverty lowers the risk of anorexia.”

Finally, the researchers found that people with ADHD and schizophrenia are more likely to develop money problems. Although that outcome was a bit more obvious, says Boks. “If someone gets a psychosis at 22, it does a huge amount of damage to professional development. Of course, this also applies to ADHD: people do worse at school, so they get jobs that pay less.”

According to Boks, policy makers can use the conclusions to intervene more effectively, because it underlines the need to also look at social factors in mental health problems. “There is a toxic element to poverty, which means that these people are more at risk of serious psychiatric disorders. Depression and psychosis are no small things. What is it about that poverty that is so toxic, and couldn't we improve it?”

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