4 out of 5 had given up treatment for economic reasons. Boom in requests in Lombardy

ITALY – They were 400,266 applications for the 2023 psychological bonus‘ submitted between January 2023 and March 2024, but just under 55 thousand were accepted, equal to 14%. TO Residents of Lombardy, Lazio, Campania and Piedmont in particular asked for help and psychological assistance. The psychological bonus opened the doors to therapy especially for people who had never used it: the 72% were not receiving treatment at the time of request and, among new patients, 4 out of 5 (81%) had never visited a therapist, mainly for financial reasons.

These are some of the data that emerged during the presentation of the PsyCARE project on the evaluation ofimpact and cost-effectiveness of the psychological bonus, illustrated by the National Council of the Order of Psychologists (CNOP) in a press conference at the Chamber of Deputies. Objectives of Educationor – created by Cnop in collaboration with the universities of Milan Bicocca, Bergamo, Catania, Palermo, Pavia and La Sapienza of Rome – was to explore access to the psychologist bonus, analyze the impact of interventions on psychological symptoms, examine the role of transdiagnostic factors on psychological interventions, estimate the economic impact of the bonus by conducting a cost-effectiveness analysis and, finally, evaluate the satisfaction of the therapists and patients who participated in this initiative.

Italians learned about the psychological bonus through TV or social media (43%), browsing search engines (19%) or through word of mouth (17%). Among new patients, 25.9% had asked for some form of psychological help in the past, 45.7% had never turned to a psychological health professional and 81% of new patients had never turned to to a therapist for financial reasons.

There are several reasons that pushed new patients to ask for help. Almost 85% of patients presented more than one reason for requesting help: the main ones were psychological symptoms (58.3%), family relationships (39.4%), the desire for more knowledge detailed information about oneself (33.2%), the relationship with one’s partner (26.7%), traumatic events such as bereavement or illness, difficulties in studying or working and, finally, psycho-physical symptoms such as headaches or insomnia. The intervention works on reducing symptoms: -45% for those of anxiety at the end of treatment and -38% at follow-up; -24% at the end of treatment and -20% at follow-up for depression.