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      Assessing mental health literacy: What medical sciences students’ know about depression

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          Abstract

          Background: Mental health literacy is an individual’s knowledge and belief about mental disorders which aid their recognition, management and prevention. The aim of this study was to investigate mental health literacy among students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences.

          Methods: In this cross-sectional study, data were collected by the anonymous self-administered questionnaires and finally 324 students participated in the study. Random cluster sampling was used. Questions were in different areas of the mental health literacy for depression include recognition of disorder, intended actions to seek help and perceived barriers, beliefs about interventions, prevention, stigmatization and impact of media. T-test was used for statistical analysis.

          Results: The mean (±SD) age was 23.5±2.8. The participants were 188 (58.1%) females and 136 (41.9%) males. In response to the recognition of the disorder 115 (35.6%) students mentioned the correct answer. In help-seeking area, 208 (64.3%) gave positive answer. The majority of affected students sought for help from their friends and parents. Stigma was the greatest barrier for seeking help. Television and Internet were the most common sources of information related to mental health.

          Conclusion: Generally students’ mental health literacy on depression was low in some areas. Appropriate educational programs specifically for reducing mental disorders stigma seems necessary. Organizing networks of co-helper students for mental health could be considered.

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          Most cited references17

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          Mental health literacy. Public knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders.

          A. JORM (2000)
          Although the benefits of public knowledge of physical diseases are widely accepted, knowledge about mental disorders (mental health literacy) has been comparatively neglected. To introduce the concept of mental health literacy to a wider audience, to bring together diverse research relevant to the topic and to identify gaps in the area. A narrative review within a conceptual framework. Many members of the public cannot recognise specific disorders or different types of psychological distress. They differ from mental health experts in their beliefs about the causes of mental disorders and the most effective treatments. Attitudes which hinder recognition and appropriate help-seeking are common. Much of the mental health information most readily available to the public is misleading. However, there is some evidence that mental health literacy can be improved. If the public's mental health literacy is not improved, this may hinder public acceptance of evidence-based mental health care. Also, many people with common mental disorders may be denied effective self-help and may not receive appropriate support from others in the community.
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            "Mental health literacy": a survey of the public's ability to recognise mental disorders and their beliefs about the effectiveness of treatment.

            To assess the public's recognition of mental disorders and their beliefs about the effectiveness of various treatments ("mental health literacy"). A cross-sectional survey, in 1995, with structured interviews using vignettes of a person with either depression or schizophrenia. A representative national sample of 2031 individuals aged 18-74 years; 1010 participants were questioned about the depression vignette and 1021 about the schizophrenia vignette. Most of the participants recognised the presence of some sort of mental disorder: 72% for the depression vignette (correctly labelled as depression by 39%) and 84% for the schizophrenia vignette (correctly labelled by 27%). When various people were rated as likely to be helpful or harmful for the person described in the vignette for depression, general practitioners (83%) and counsellors (74%) were most often rated as helpful, with psychiatrists (51%) and psychologists (49%) less so. Corresponding data for the schizophrenia vignette were: counsellors (81%), GPs (74%), psychiatrists (71%) and psychologists (62%). Many standard psychiatric treatments (antidepressants, antipsychotics, electroconvulsive therapy, admission to a psychiatric ward) were more often rated as harmful than helpful, and some nonstandard treatments were rated highly (increased physical or social activity, relaxation and stress management, reading about people with similar problems). Vitamins and special diets were more often rated as helpful than were antidepressants and antipsychotics. If mental disorders are to be recognised early in the community and appropriate intervention sought, the level of mental health literacy needs to be raised. Further, public understanding of psychiatric treatments can be considerably improved.
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              Mental health literacy among young people in a small US town: recognition of disorders and hypothetical helping responses.

              Mental health literacy may be a factor in early detection and prompt treatment for mental, emotional and behavioural disorders among young people. Building on previous research in Australia, this study assessed aspects of mental health literacy among adolescents in classrooms in a small town in the eastern USA. The students were provided brief, hypothetical, gender-matched scenarios about adolescents experiencing negative emotions and exhibiting related behaviours; some scenarios depicted diagnosable disorders. The respondents were asked to characterize each scenario as describing a mental health problem or other teen problem and indicate how they would respond to a peer who had such a problem. Overall levels of recognition of mental disorders were low (27.5% identified anxiety and 42.4% identified depression as 'a mental health problem or illness'). However, the respondents who recognized a disorder were three to four times more likely than those who did not to say they would take some helping action, such as telling an adult about the problem (depression: odds ratio 3.27; CI 1.43-7.46, anxiety: OR 4.43; CI 2.23-8.79). Few students (27.7%) remembered in-class discussions of mental health, a mandated health topic for schools in their area. There appears to be substantial room for improvement in mental health literacy among young people, and the development of interventions to enhance mental health literacy among students may be justified. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Med J Islam Repub Iran
                Med J Islam Repub Iran
                MJIRI
                Med J Islam Repub Iran
                Medical Journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran
                Iran University of Medical Sciences
                1016-1430
                2251-6840
                2015
                26 January 2015
                : 29
                : 161
                Affiliations
                1 MD, Assistant Professor, Community Medicine Specialist, Community Based Participatory Research Center, Iranian Institute for Reduction of High-Risk Behaviors, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. drsayarifard@ 123456gmail.com
                2 MD. MPH, Community Medicine Specialist, Community Based Participatory Research Center, Iranian Institute for Reduction of High-Risk Behaviors, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. lalehghadirian@ 123456yahoo.com
                3 MD, Professor, Psychiatrist, Tehran Psychiatric Institute, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. mohitahmad@ 123456gmail.com
                4 MD, Associate Professor, Psychiatrist, Mental Health Research Center, Tehran Psychiatric Institute, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. mehrdad.eftekhar@ 123456gmail.com
                5 MSc student of Health administration, Mental Health Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. badpa.mahnaz@ 123456gmail.com
                6 MD MPH, Assistant professor, Community medicine specialist, Community Based Participatory Research Center, Iranian Institute for Reduction of High-Risk Behaviors, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. frajabi@ 123456tums.ac.ir
                Author notes
                (Corresponding author) MD. MPH, Community Medicine Specialist, Community Based Participatory Research Center, Iranian Institute for Reduction of High-Risk Behaviors, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. lalehghadirian@ 123456yahoo.com
                Article
                4431358
                26000256
                d1a82dbb-7f8b-42ea-8517-b1660107898b
                © 2015 Iran University of Medical Sciences

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 3.0 License (CC BY-NC 3.0), which allows users to read, copy, distribute and make derivative works for non-commercial purposes from the material, as long as the author of the original work is cited properly.

                History
                : 21 April 2014
                : 02 September 2014
                Page count
                Tables: 4, References: 27, Pages: 9
                Categories
                Original Article

                mental health literacy,medical sciences’ students,knowledge

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