While certain mental conditions are known to impact financial stability, the authors found that poverty "can lead to mental health problems". They analysed data from the UK Biobank and the international Psychiatric Genomic Consortium. New Delhi: Living in poverty could be causing mental illnesses and vice-versa, according to a study.
While previous studies have shown a strong correlation between poverty and mental illness, researchers said that they have not been able to discern the cause-and-effect relationship between the two. While certain mental conditions are known to impact financial stability, the authors found that poverty “can lead to mental health problems”. They analysed data from the UK Biobank and the international Psychiatric Genomic Consortium.
“We discovered that schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) causally contribute to poverty. Conversely, poverty contributes to major depressive disorder and schizophrenia,” said Marco Boks, a psychiatrist at Amsterdam University Medical Center in The Netherlands. People with ADHD have short attention spans, along with restlessness and impulsivity, while those with schizophrenia harbour a distorted perception of reality, affecting how they think, feel and behave.
For the study, published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, the researchers determined a measure of poverty, using household income, occupational income and social deprivation. They then used the genetic information of the pa.
