The “Crisis Impact” study, which studied the effect of the financial crisis on the mental health of the Portuguese population, also found an increase in the amount of antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs being consumed.
The study, put together by the president of the Lisbon Institute of Global Mental Health, José Caldas de Almeida, is due to be presented on Friday at the Gulbenkian Mental Health Forum. It compares information from 2008-2009 with information from the end of 2015.
According to preliminary data, mental health problems affected 19.8 percent of the population in 2008 and in 2015 that prevalence rose to 31.2 percent.
The prevalence of mental health problems in 2015 was higher in women, the elderly, widowers and people separated from their partners as well as people with lower levels of education.
The study shows that drops in income, unemployment and lower social and economic status are related to changes in mental health, particularly depression and anxiety.
More than 40 percent of people in the sample reported a drop in income since 2008, around half because of a cut in salaries or pensions, 14 percent due to unemployment, six percent because of a change in employment and five percent due to retirement.