In Estonia, older people treat depression with medication more often than receive psychotherapy
In Estonia, people over the age of 60 use medication to treat depression three times more often than they receive psychotherapy. ERR News reported these findings from a survey of 1,000 adult residents of the Lasnamäe, Õismäe and Mustamäe districts in Tallinn.
Medication instead of therapy
The survey was conducted as part of the “Depression-Free Tallinn” project, commissioned by the Estonian-Swedish Mental Health and Suicidology Institute. The research was carried out by Norstat.
Depending on the age group, people with mental health problems received medication treatment two to three times more often than therapy. Research project leader Rainer Mere noted that treatment for older people usually focuses on medications, while younger people more often receive both medication and therapy.
According to Mere, the results also showed the prevalence of prejudice, stigma and difficulties navigating the mental health care system.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
Access to psychological assistance
Mere believes that older people are willing to receive therapy and do not object to it. At the same time, they may not be offered this type of assistance, may not know that they should ask for it, or doctors may not offer psychotherapy.
Margus Tinisaar, president of the Estonian Association of Psychologists, called the results expected. According to him, medication is cheaper and more accessible, while access to mental health services in Estonia is difficult. He also drew attention to significant differences in the quality of services and difficulties clients face in determining specialists’ qualifications.
Mari Ader-Nobels, mental health adviser at Estonia’s Ministry of Social Affairs, said that the government seeks to expand access to psychological assistance. In family medicine centres, it can be provided by family doctors, mental health nurses, clinical psychologists and counselling psychologists; the services of the latter have been funded by the Estonian Health Insurance Fund since last year.
