Differences in beliefs and attitudes toward Depression and Schizophrenia in Russia and the United States

Abstract

Background: Cross-cultural studies find that culture shapes people’s understanding of mental illnesses, particularly Depression and Schizophrenia. Aims: To compare individuals’ beliefs and attitudes toward Depression and Schizophrenia in Russia and the United States. Method: Participants ( N=607) were presented with vignettes of two diagnostically unlabeled psychiatric case histories and then answered questions regarding mental health literacy (MHL) and attitudes toward the person and the illness. Results: Our findings indicate that Depression was most often attributed to psychosocial stress while Schizophrenia was thought to be caused by biological factors. People from both countries considered those suffering from Schizophrenia to be unpredictable and dangerous. US participants were more likely to endorse lay and professional help for both disorders than their Russian counterparts. Russian participants reported being less likely to turn to someone they trust and more likely to deal with problems on their own. Russian participants were also more likely to view those with Depression as ‘weak-willed’ and leading an ‘immoral lifestyle’. Conclusion: Our findings further inform cultural understandings of these mental illnesses in an often neglected national group. Patterns suggest that both groups may benefit from exposure to corrective information about Depression and Schizophrenia.

Prevalence of symptoms, ever having received a diagnosis and treatment of depression and anxiety, and associations with health service use amongst the general population in two Russian cities

“…Our findings of low levels of treatment and diagnosis are consistent with previous studies on attitudes and beliefs about depression where presented with vignettes describing people with symptoms of depression Russian participants compared to participants from Germany [38] and the United States [39] were less likely to attribute depression to biological rather than psycho-social causes [38,39], more likely to indicate depression was related to "weak will" [38,39] and less likely to endorse help seeking for the individual [39], while in a similar comparative study Russian participants were less likely to endorse seeking help from medical sources than British participants and scored lower on a scales indicating tolerance towards descriptions of people with mental health problems [40]. Interventions aimed at improving mental health literacy [41][42][43] and reducing stigma [44,45] both in the general population and among health care professionals could be of benefit in closing the treatment gap.…”

Mental health literacy in Ghana: Implications for religiosity, education and stigmatization

“…This finding is concordant with a large sample study conducted with university students in the USA (Eisenberg et al, 2009), as researchers found that personal stigma was higher among more religious students (see also Caplan et al, 2011). Stigma may also be higher in developing or more religious countries; a recent study found that Russian compared to American participants were more likely to view a person depicted in a vignette with depression to be weak-willed and leading an "immoral" lifestyle (Nersessova et al, 2019).…”

“…Diagonally Weighted Least Squares (DWLS) estimator, which is specifically designed for ordinal data, was used. The outliers were winsorized to 3.3 SD from the mean with rank order preserved, a method used in similar research (Nersessova et al, 2019). Correct identification of mental disorders was based on participants' ability to provide the correct diagnosis for either of the two disorders (i.e., major depression for case 1 or a close variation such as depression, and schizophrenia for case 2 or a close variation such as schizophrenic psychosis).…”

“…This preference may have to do with the universality of these two disorders, found in various cultural settings around the world (Heine, 2015). Both disorders are also highly researched and contribute significantly to disability, caregiver and economic burden and have been associated with stigma in various settings (e.g., see Ahmed, Bruce, & Jurcik, 2018;Nersessova, Jurcik, & Hulsey, 2019;Chong et al, 2016). Previous studies found that differences exist between disorders when it comes to their recognition, with correct identification rates for depression tending to be higher compared to schizophrenia in public surveys.…”

“…These paradoxical findings suggest that there may be advantages and disadvantages associated with recognition as it pertains to stigma. Perhaps correct identification allows for cognitive access to corrective information about the disorder, including information about the potential for recovery and resilience; but at other times, it potentially may also lead to the activation of negative associations, such as the refractory nature of many disorders, and distorted beliefs about contagion and dangerousness (see Gulliver, et al,2010;Nersessova et al, 2019).…”