Personal stigma associated with depression is higher among men and the less well educated, according to research published in the open access journal BMC Psychiatry.
The findings by the Australian team
highlight the importance of developing programs to tackle the stigma
associated with depression.
Researchers from the Australian National University examined
both personal stigma, which is the negative attitude a person has
towards depression, and perceived stigma, which describes the stigma
felt by a person with depression.
"We already know that stigma is a leading cause of concern for
people suffering from depression but up until now not a lot has been
done to examine it," explained lead researcher Kathleen Griffiths.
"Our
work is critical to the successful design and targeting of programs
that address the public's negative attitudes to people with depression
and help to reduce the stigma felt by those who are already depressed."
Over six thousand Australian adults, including some with
depression, answered the research surveys in an attempt to investigate
and compare their own levels of perceived stigma as well as personal
stigma.
People who had come into contact with depression had lower
levels of personal stigma. The researchers found that people who scored
highest on a test of depression knowledge were less likely to
stigmatize the condition.
At a national level, older people were more likely to hold
stigmatizing views and to believe that the public viewed people with
depression in a poor light. "Interestingly" said, Griffiths, "although
it is often assumed that people from rural areas have more negative
attitudes to mental disorders, we did not find any difference between
stigma in the country and city."
Griffiths concluded; "This is the first study to investigate
predictors of personal stigma among those people with high levels of
depressive symptoms. Personal stigmas were higher for males, those with
less education, those born overseas and people in greater psychological
distress.
"While our study showed that stigma is not as high as many members of the public think, it is still a problem. For example, as many as one-in-five Australians say that they would not work with someone with depression.
"We recommend developing targeted programs to reduce these levels of stigma. A good place to start might be with men, older people, those with lower education levels and those born overseas."
Resources:
1. Predictors of depression stigma
Kathleen M Griffiths, Helen Christensen and Anthony F Jorm
BMC Psychiatry (in press)
Article available at the journal website: http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcpsychiatry/
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