Explaining service use for mental health problems in the Dutch general population: the role of resources, emotional disorder and functional impairment

Objective To analyse explanations of service use in terms of resources, emotional (mood or anxiety) disorder and functional impairment. Method Data was derived from a prospective cohort study in a sample representative (n = 4848) of the Dutch adult general population. Results The occurrence of an emotional (mood or anxiety) disorder led to a greater use of services as a partial consequence of the functional impairments that accompanied the disorder, but this applied only to primary care services and not to specialised mental health services. After adjustment for the influence of all other determinants in the model, people with more education and those with higher neuroticism scores were more likely to use specialised services in particular. Conclusions Future research could benefit from applying the models derived here to further clarify the use of the two service modalities, as well as to assess additional psychological resources.