The Oral Contraceptive Pill and Adolescents’ Mental Health

Ana Costa-Ramón, N. Meltem Daysal and Ana Rodríguez-González

No 10549, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: What is the impact of the oral contraceptive pill on the mental health of adolescent girls? Using administrative data from Denmark and exploiting the variation in the timing of pill initiation in an event study design, we find that the likelihood of a depression diagnosis and antidepressant use increases shortly after pill initiation. We then uncover substantial variation in primary care providers’ tendency to prescribe the pill to adolescents, unrelated to patient characteristics. Being assigned to a high prescribing physician strongly predicts pill use by age 16 and leads to worse mental health outcomes between ages 16-18.

Keywords: contraceptive pill; mental health; adolescents; prescribing practices (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-neu
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Related works:
Working Paper: The Oral Contraceptive Pill and Adolescents' Mental Health (2023)
Working Paper: The Oral Contraceptive Pill and Adolescents' Mental Health (2023)
Working Paper: The Oral Contraceptive Pill and Adolescents' Mental Health (2023)
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