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IZA Discussion Paper No. 18773
July 2026
(Not) Talking Through Mental Health Problems: How Talk Therapy Impacts Healthcare Utilization, Health and Employment

To increase the uptake of mental health care and reduce the burden of mental health, many countries have introduced programs offering easily accessible talk therapy. Despite their widespread introduction and continued expansion, causal evidence on these programs' effectiveness is lacking. I estimate the impact of a Dutch program that introduced talk therapy provided by nurse practitioners at GP practices nationwide. The reform increased talk therapy uptake by 6 percentage points among individuals seeking care but also widened existing disparities in care utilization. The increased take-up of talk therapy did not significantly improve the health and employment outcomes of patients.

Communications
Mark Fallak
mark.fallak@liser.lu
+352 585-855-526
World of Labour
Olga Nottmeyer
olga.nottmeyer-ext@liser.lu
+352 585-855-501
Network Coordination
Christina Gathmann
christina.gathmann@liser.lu

The IZA@LISER Network is a global community of scholars dedicated to excellence in labor economics and related fields, now coordinated at the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) following its transition from Bonn.

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