(Not) talking through our mental problems: The impact of talk therapy on healthcare utilization and employment

Abstract
To increase the uptake of treatment and thereby reduce the negative (economic) burden of mental health disorders, many countries have introduced programs that offer easily accessible forms of talk therapy. Despite their widespread introduction, causal evidence on the effectiveness of these programs is lacking. Using administrative data, I estimate the impact of a Dutch nationwide program that introduced talk therapy provided by nurse practitioners at GP practices. The reform increased the uptake of talk therapy by 6 percentage points among individuals seeking care. However, the increased uptake also widened existing disparities in mental healthcare utilization. Additionally, both in the short and the long-run, the use of already-existing types of mental healthcare was largely unaffected and the labour market outcomes of individuals suffering from mental health problems did not improve, indicating that more is needed to improve the long-term outcomes of these individuals.