Mental health care use and psychotropic drug consumption among the divorced: does informal support matter?

The expenditures for mental health care and psychotropic drug consumption have risen in most West-European countries. In a post-divorce era, mental health problems and health care use have gained even more importance. Divorce has detrimental implications for informal support networks. Informal support in turn influences professional care seeking. This study compares the health care use of the divorced with that of the married. Within the theoretical framework of crowding in/out thesis, we question whether the availability of informal support, facilitates or substitutes formal care seeking. While the crowding-out thesis postulates that informal support substitutes formal support, the crowding-in thesis states that informal support encourages professional care use. We also wonder whether the relation between type of informal support and professional care seeking varies between women and men. The data of the Divorce in Flanders survey of 2009-2010 is used. Logistic regression an alyses w ere performed separately for women (N=3450) and men (N=3020). We make a distinction between contacting a GP, a psychiatrist, a psychologist and the use of psychotropic drugs. Informal support refers to the presence of emotional support of family and non-family members. Results show that divorced women (especially singles) contact more often each type of health care provider, regardless of their mental health, informal support and socio-economic background. Women who can rely on the support of family and non-family members are more inclined to contact a GP. With regard to men, informal support of non-family members positively influences each type of care seeking. These findings are in line with the crowding-in thesis