How sad is your state?

The nonprofit agency Mental Health America released a report that ranks depression for each state. The organization developed a composite measure of depression levels based on data from SAMSHA's National Household Survey on Drug Use and Health and the CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (two of my favorite data sets!).

Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, and New Jersey were found to be the mentally healthiest states, while Idaho, Nevada, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming were found to have the poorest mental health.

Available resources, affordable treatment, insurance coverage, and utilization of available services were all factors associated with better mental health. So basically, the more people who can and do use mental health services in a state, the lower the suicide and depression rates. States with more generous mental health coverage tended to be the states where more people accessed treatment, resulting in lower suicide rates.

Who paid for this research, you ask? Why, the kind folks at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. How nice of them! I'm sure they weren't thinking at all about their meds down the pipeline, like Pristiq, an anti-depressant undergoing regulatory review right now, or vabicaserin, an anti-depressant currently in phase 3 research. I'd love to see a marketing map of target advertising audiences when Pristiq is approved. Oh wait, I already posted it above, silly me. However, while I am suspicious, I don't classify this kind of industry support as "bad", just saddening. Data like this informs the psych health policy debate while helping to destigmatize mental health treatment, so studies like this need to get done. Unfortunetly, as it often seems when it comes to mental health, only ones willing to foot the bill are those with potential for financial gain.