Health-care inflation: A missed opportunity

Since the 1960s, the social sciences have shown a lot of interest in the role of psychosocial factors (e.g., stress) in health. Also during that time, the United States has been seriously concerned about the spiraling of health care costs. If there is a point to make about the contribution of psychosocial factors to health and illness, there should be a point to make about their contribution to health care utilization and costs. However, social scientists failed to respond to the health care cost issue by extending their efforts to the study of psychosocial determinants of utilization and costs and hence did not produce data useful for the making of health and mental health policies. This article reviews the current literature on mental health needs and medical utilization and makes recommendations for future research.