The effects of the U.S. housing crisis may be stretching far beyond the economy, according to a study finding high rates of depression among people facing home foreclosure.

Researchers found that among 250 Pennsylvania residents at risk of losing their homes, 37 percent screened positive for major depression.

By comparison, a recent study of low-income Americans found that about 13 percent met the screening criteria for major depression.

“So the rate in this study was three times higher,” said lead researcher Dr. Craig Pollack, of the research organization RAND in Arlington, Virginia. “We were surprised by how high it was.”

The extent to which the high depression rate was caused by participants’ foreclosure stress is not known, Pollack told Reuters Health. People at risk of losing their homes may be facing numerous other problems that could affect their mental health, including job loss and general financial woes.

Regardless, Pollack said, the bottom line is that depression appears to be common among people going through foreclosure.

The findings, published in the American Journal of Public Health, are based on 250 Philadelphia-area homeowners who had been referred to a mortgage counseling agency because they were in danger of foreclosure.

Pollack’s team compared them with 10,000 Philadelphia-area residents who had taken part in a 2008 health survey.

Overall, people in the foreclosure group were twice as likely to say they had ever been diagnosed with depression, anxiety or another psychiatric condition - 35 percent, versus 17 percent of the comparison group.

Still, many in the foreclosure group who screened positive for major depression had never been formally diagnosed - 44 percent. (The comparison group was not screened for depression, so it was not possible to compare them in that regard.)

Study participants facing foreclosure were also two to three times more likely than the comparison group to have no health insurance or to say they had skipped doctor visits or cut back on their prescription medications for financial reasons.

Those findings, Pollack noted, highlight the difficulty some of these individuals will face in having their depression - or any other health problem - diagnosed and treated.

“People are making difficult trade-offs right now,” he said.

But as of yet, Pollack added, policy makers have not been focused on the health implications of the housing crisis. “Understanding that foreclosures and health go hand-in-hand is critical,” he said.

For now, Pollack suggested that primary care doctors be aware of the fact that patients going through foreclosure may also be going through mental health difficulties. He added that mortgage counselors could also be enlisted to help, by referring clients to local healthcare resources.

SOURCE: American Journal of Public Health, online August 20, 2009.