Several
surveys have found negative attitudes of the
public towards antidepressants in contrast to
positive perceptions of health professionals.
Despite the tendency for an improvement in the
public attitude the gap between public and
professional thinking is still important,
frequently preventing any search for help and
adherence to treatments. A study of the factors
associated with these negative attitudes has
recently been published.
A survey of Australian adults consisted in
showing them a vignette of a person with
depression and suicidal thoughts, accompanied by
questions to assess their recognition of the
disorder, their beliefs about helpfulness or
harmfulness of antidepressants and other
interventions, about long-term outcomes, about
causes and risk factors, and stigmatizing
attitudes.
23.4% of those interviewed thought
antidepressants would be harmful for a depressed
and suicidal person. There was no association of
age or gender with these beliefs. Subjects who
thought antidepressants would be harmful were
less educated, less exposed to depression, had
lower ability to recognise depression, were less
likely to favor any treatments/interventions,
were less pessimistic about what the outcome
would be if there was no professional help, and
were more likely to consider that the cause of
depression is weakness of character.
These data suggest an urgent need for the public
to adopt more favorable attitudes to depression
and its treatment. This should be done by
increasing knowledge of depression and reducing
stigma of the disease in order to avoid
underestimation of its seriousness, favour its
recognition, and emphasize the benefits of its
treatment. Jorm
AF, Christensen H, Griffiths KM. Belief in the
harmfulness of antidepressants: Results from a
national survey of the Australian public. J
Affect Disord 2005, 88:47-53.