A major blind spot is holding back research into the relationship between money and mental health, according to a new review from University College Dublin. Although financial instability and psychological illness are widely recognized as closely connected, researchers still rely overwhelmingly on people’s memories and perceptions of their own financial lives rather than examining what actually happens in their bank accounts. The review suggests that this dependence on self-reported surveys may be obscuring important warning signs, including sudden spending changes, missed payments and other patterns that could reveal deteriorating mental health.
The study, led by researchers at UCD’s School of Computer Science and School of Psychology, examined 43 studies exploring financial behaviour and mental illness. Its findings reveal a research field that has made progress in documenting the damage caused by financial hardship, but has been slower to investigate the reverse relationship: how psychiatric conditions can alter the way people earn, spend, save and manage money. The authors argue that this imbalance limits both scientific understanding and the development of practical tools that could help people before a financial crisis becomes severe.
Only four of the 43 studies reviewed used objective financial information, such as bank transaction histories or gambling records. The remaining studies largely depended on questionnaires and interviews, asking participants to estimate their spending, debt, financial stress or other money-related experiences. While surveys remain valuable for understanding how people feel about their finances, they can be affected by faulty memory, shame, social pressure and changes in perception associated with mental illness. Someone experiencing depression, severe anxiety or mania may not recall or describe their financial behaviour accurately.
Anonymized transaction data could provide a more precise and continuous view. Instead of asking a person to remember how often they spent money or missed bills, researchers could analyze patterns such as abrupt increases in discretionary purchases, repeated withdrawals, unusual gambling activity, rapid changes in income or the accumulation of unpaid obligations. These signals would not prove that someone has a mental health condition, but they could help identify changes that merit further investigation. The technical challenge is to distinguish meaningful behavioural shifts from ordinary variation while protecting users from surveillance, misinterpretation and financial discrimination.
The review also found that modern analytical methods remain underused. Fewer than one in five studies applied machine learning or contemporary predictive modelling, while traditional statistical techniques dominated the field. Machine-learning systems can process large, complex datasets and detect combinations of variables that may be difficult to identify using conventional approaches. For example, a model could examine the interaction between transaction frequency, spending categories, income volatility and missed repayments over time. However, the researchers emphasize that predictive accuracy alone is not enough. Any system designed to flag financial vulnerability would need to be transparent, carefully validated and tested for bias across different populations.
Most of the existing research examined financial hardship as a cause of mental health problems. Almost 80% of the studies followed this one-way direction, focusing on how debt, poverty or economic insecurity may contribute to depression, anxiety or psychological distress. Far fewer investigated whether mental health conditions themselves influence financial decisions. This omission is particularly important for conditions that can affect impulse control, motivation, concentration, planning and risk perception. A person experiencing a manic episode, for instance, may engage in unusually high-risk or extravagant spending, while someone with severe depression may struggle to open bills, make payments or manage routine financial tasks.
The diagnostic range in the literature was also narrow. Depression appeared most frequently, followed by anxiety and general psychological distress. Other conditions, including bipolar disorder, psychotic disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and gambling-related problems, received considerably less attention despite their potential links to financial behaviour. The researchers say that a broader diagnostic scope is essential because different conditions may produce distinct financial patterns. Treating all financial difficulty as a single outcome could conceal clinically important differences and reduce the usefulness of future interventions.
The review points toward a future in which financial technology could become an early-warning system, provided that people actively choose to participate. Banking applications might offer opt-in safeguards that detect unusual spending and provide tailored budgeting alerts, temporary spending limits or prompts to contact a trusted person. Such features could be designed to support, rather than replace, clinical care. A sudden change in financial activity might encourage a clinician or individual to discuss sleep, mood, medication or stress, but it should never be treated as an automatic diagnosis. Human oversight, informed consent and strict data security would be essential.
“Shifting towards objective measurement opens the door for the development of better digital tools,” said lead author Dara Adedeji, a PhD candidate at UCD’s School of Computer Science. Associate Professor Keith Gaynor of UCD’s School of Psychology added that real-time financial behaviour could help clinicians and individuals recognize early signs of psychiatric distress or manic spending episodes. The authors describe the integration of objective financial data with mental health research as a critical step toward earlier identification of vulnerability and more targeted intervention. Their study, led by Dr Mark Matthews, was published in Frontiers in Public Health under the title “Money and mental health: a scoping review of financial variables, data sources, and analytical methods.” The findings do not suggest that banks should monitor customers without permission; instead, they call for carefully governed research capable of revealing how financial security and psychological wellbeing influence each other in real time.
Subject of Research: People
Article Title: Money and mental health: a scoping review of financial variables, data sources, and analytical methods
Web References: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2026.1812845
References: Frontiers in Public Health, published 1 July 2026. DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2026.1812845
Keywords: financial wellbeing, mental health, financial behaviour, objective financial data, banking data, machine learning, depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, psychological distress, mental health research, UCD
