As we know certain mental illnesses such as Bipolar Mood Disorder leads to very unique spending patterns. Although it is impossible to use a sole indicator for a mental disorder, can we use the historical spending pattern to help confirm the presence of a Mental Illness if other symptoms of that illness is already present in the individual. Or maybe as a precursor which can by examined to give the psychiatrist an possible idea as to which illness a certain individual may have.
In case the financial history would be a valid indicator of e.g. hypomania or mania, it would already be in the book.
Dear Hendrik,
for example Brenner (1973) has suggested that economic change accounts for mental health issues. I also heard from a patient, that his wife changed her financial spending habits after the onset of her bipolar disorder. Also narcissistic personality disorder can be reflected in excessive spending behavior (Doyle, 1992). So, I think it's a valid question, and even if it's not included in the DSM or ICD, it could be a criteria for diagnosis.
I think, in clinical practice it can be very difficult to use financial history as a diagnosis criteria, because it needs to much time to retrace the spending behavior of a patient, and to attribute it together with the patient to an underlying disorder. However, it's an interesting research topic...
Dear Le Roux,
For the psychiatric diagnosis a large and complete psychopathological examination, a full clinical exam, a family medical history, and the history of previous and present signs, symptoms and behavior are all very important. No sign, symptom or behavior alone may decide a diagnosis. A financial history can be just one point for a correct diagnosis, but far from being a decisive one. I saw many times a search of a psychiatric diagnosis just to justify an out of control bad financial behavior. Normal people do a lot of bad things.
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