The idea that social support can act as a buffer against the negative consequences of stress has been a particularly influential one. Most of the relevant research has focused on the impact of life events. In this paper we direct attention to the impact of chronic economic stress on...

There is a temptation for the debate on reducing GP utilization to employ terms such as ‘appropriate’ or ‘unnecessary’, terms that are in fact value-laden. The meaning of such terms is rarely defined explicitly, perhaps reflecting the lack of consensus on the nature of services that...