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The older population bears a heavy burden of mental illness. Despite the availability
of effective treatments, including services (e.g., psychotherapy) and drugs (e.g., antidepressants,
antipsychotics), this paper documents substantial geographic variation in
treatment utilization rates among Medicare enrollees. Exploiting patient migration, I
show that 45.8% of service utilization variation is attributable to place-specific factors,
compared to 15.1% for drug utilization. Further analyses suggest the role of provider
accessibility in explaining the different place effects between service and drug use. Regarding
health outcomes, I find that higher treatment utilization is associated with
lower risks of self-harm-related emergency department visits.
