Public Beliefs About the Helpfulness of Interventions for Depression: Effects on Actions Taken When Experiencing Anxiety and Depression Symptoms

作者：Anthony F. Jorm, Jo Medway, Helen Christensen, Ailsa Korten, Patricia A. Jacomb, Bryan Rodgers · 发表于：Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry · 年份：2000 · DOI：10.1080/j.1440-1614.2000.00761.x · 被引用次数：183 · 研究领域：Mental Health Treatment and Access、Mental Health and Patient Involvement、Digital Mental Health Interventions

OBJECTIVE: Previous research has shown that the public have different beliefs to mental health professionals about the helpfulness of interventions for mental disorders. However, it is not known whether the public's beliefs actually influence their behaviour when they develop psychiatric symptoms. METHOD: A postal survey of 3,109 Australian adults was used to assess beliefs about the helpfulness of a broad range of interventions for depression, as well as respondents' current level of anxiety and depression symptoms and any history of treated depression. A follow-up survey of 422 persons who had a high level of symptoms at baseline was conducted 6 months later. These people were asked which interventions they had used to reduce their symptoms. An analysis was carried out to see whether beliefs and other factors at baseline predicted subsequent use of interventions. RESULTS: There were some major discrepancies between the ranking of interventions as likely to be helpful and the ranking of how frequently they were actually used. Interventions involving mental health professionals were often rated as likely to be helpful, but were rarely used in practice. Other simple, cheap and readily available interventions were used the most frequently, but were not the most likely to be rated as helpful. The most consistent predictors across all interventions used were gender, history of treatment, current symptoms and belief in a particular intervention. Of particular interest was the find...