Trends in Mental Illness Treatment: A Decade of Progress?

Large mental health surveys that accurately identify diagnoses are costly and time-intensive and occur infrequently, making analysis of time trends difficult. To examine treatment trends in 1996–2006, these researchers used multiple health surveys that tracked physician diagnoses and self-reported mental health problems causing functional limitations.

The rate of mental health diagnoses increased, especially in whites and seniors (age, >65). Treatment rates also increased, but only among the less severely ill; seniors and more-severely ill patients actually received less treatment. The rate of psychiatric hospitalization increased, and use of psychotropic medications almost doubled. Use of psychosocial treatments was relatively sparse and sh…