Class relations, economic inequality and mental health: Why social class matters to the sociology of mental health

Psychiatric epidemiologists were among the first scientists to document that the poor suffer from a higher rate of mental disorders than the affluent. Mental health and, more precisely, psychiatric research have propelled many studies on economic inequality and mental disorders which reflect the humanistic concerns of psychiatrists. These studies are motivated by a desire to improve the living conditions of workers, immigrants, and racial or ethnic minorities (e.g., Blazer, Kessler, McGonagle, & Swartz, 1994; Eaton, Buka, Addington, Bass, Brown, Cherker-zian, Forman-Hoffman, Gilbert, Hayden, Jain, Lehrer, Martin, Mielke, Norberg, Thomas, & Yu, 2004; Jacobi, Wittchen, Hölting, Höfler, Pfister, Müller, & Lieb, 2004; Lahelma, Martikainen, Rahkonen, Roos, & Saastamoinen, 2005; Regier, Boyd, Burke, Rae, Myers, Kramer, Robins, George, Karno, & Locke, 1988; Roberts & Lee, 1993). The absence or poor quality of psychiatric care for poor working class, immigrant, or racial and ethnic minority populations (Alegria, Bijl, Lin,Walters, & Kessler, 2000; Cohen, Houck, Szanto, Dew, Gilman, & Reynolds, 2006; Muntaner, Wolyniec, McGrath, & Pulver, 1995) raise a related set of concerns about the implications of economic inequality for the treatment of mental disorders.