Is knowledge "half the battle"? The role of depression literacy in help-seeking among a non-clinical sample of adults with currently untreated mental health problems

S Tomczyk; H Muehlan; S Freitag; S Stolzenburg; G Schomerus; S Schmidt

doi:10.1016/j.jad.2018.05.059

Is knowledge "half the battle"? The role of depression literacy in help-seeking among a non-clinical sample of adults with currently untreated mental health problems

J Affect Disord. 2018 Oct 1:238:289-296. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2018.05.059. Epub 2018 May 29.

Authors

S Tomczyk¹, H Muehlan², S Freitag², S Stolzenburg³, G Schomerus³, S Schmidt²

Affiliations

¹ Department Health and Prevention, Institute of Psychology, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany. Electronic address: samuel.tomczyk@uni-greifswald.de.
² Department Health and Prevention, Institute of Psychology, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
³ Department of Psychiatry, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.

PMID: 29902732
DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2018.05.059

Abstract

Backgrounds: The concept of mental health literacy suggests that higher literacy increases the likelihood of seeking treatment. However, previous studies mostly use vignettes, and do not investigate actual help-seeking behaviour.

Methods: We assessed depression literacy and type of mental illness in a convenience sample of 207 adults with currently untreated mental health problems from the general population. Our analysis sample comprised 152 adults (M_age= 52.12; 73.0% female) with a depressive disorder. Help-seeking behaviour was measured 3 and 6 months after the initial assessment. We conducted multiple logistic regression models to test whether depression literacy predicted help-seeking from mental health professionals, general practitioner, family and friends, or counselling, controlling for sociodemographic data, and depression severity.

Results: Depression literacy was lower in men and older participants, and higher in participants with prior treatment experience. Depression literacy was negatively linked to informal help-seeking (aOR = 0.33 [0.13; 0.84]) when included as a dichotomous predictor (i.e., 'high' versus 'low' literacy).

Limitations: Our sample was small, thus we did not differentiate between types of depressive disorders in our analysis.

Conclusion: We could not corroborate most postulated associations between depression literacy and help-seeking, except for the negative association with informal help. Our findings underline differences between previous vignette-based and community-based investigations of the help-seeking process for mental health problems. To explore underlying mechanisms, future research should investigate the role of intermediary variables and processes in the association between depression literacy and help-seeking, such as self-efficacy and symptom attribution, which might be more clinically relevant in help-seeking for depressive symptoms.

Keywords: Depression; General population; Help seeking; Mental health; Mental health literacy; Mental health treatment.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Depression / psychology*
Female
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice*
Health Literacy*
Help-Seeking Behavior
Humans
Male
Mental Disorders / psychology*
Middle Aged
Patient Acceptance of Health Care / psychology*