Knowledge and Attitude of Pharmacy Students toward People with Mental Illnesses and Help-Seeking: A Cross-Sectional Study from Saudi Arabia

Abstract

People with mental illnesses (MIs) face several challenges in addition to their disease. People’s negative views of those with MIs impact patients’ decisions to seek professional help. The aims of this study were to assess pharmacy students’ attitudes toward people with MIs and seeking help for mental health, as well as their knowledge about the causes of MIs. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on pharmacy students at Unaizah College of Pharmacy, Qassim University, Saudi Arabia. Out of the 460 distributed questionnaires, 330 complete questionnaires were received, giving a response rate of 71.7%. Overall, the mean total score for attitude towards people with MIs was 60.16 ± 10.48 (maximum attainable score: 105). In this study, 51.12% believed that people with MIs are more likely to harm others than a person without MIs and 66.9% mentioned that they did not trust the work of a mentally ill person as part of their work team. However, only 35.45% believed that it is difficult for mentally ill individuals to follow social rules. In terms of attitudes toward help-seeking, the mean total score of was 12.83 ± 3.16 out of the maximum score of 25. In addition, the mean total score for knowledge about causes of mental illness was 2.92 ± 1.76 out of the maximum score of 8. The participants reported that MIs could be due to genetic inheritance (56%), substance abuse (54.5%), or brain disease (66.1%). The findings showed that there are some negative attitudes toward people with MIs and negative attitudes towards seeking help for mental health. In addition, some misconceptions about the causes of MIs are prevalent. Consequently, the incorporation of more topics concerning mental health in pharmacy curricula could help improve the awareness of and knowledge about mental health.

Attitude towards mental illness and seeking professional help among pharmacy students in Yemen

“…The study results showed differences in attitudes between males and females, as about 66.7% of the female group had a positive attitude towards people with MIs. This finding was consistent with that of the Nepalese study (Nepal et al, 2020) but not in line with previous studies conducted in Saudi Arabia (Alsahali, 2021) and Pakistan (Javed et al, 2006). This variation with a study in Pakistan could be due to the fact that it evaluated both university students and…”

“…The results were compared with other studies that assessed the same. In this study, most participants were younger than 22 years and were females, consistent with other studies conducted in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon (Alsahali, 2021;Hammoudi et al, 2022).…”

“…With regards to attitudes, about 60.9% of the study participants had a positive attitude towards mental illness. When compared to other studies, this result was lower than the findings from Nepal (Gurung, 2014), comparable to that of Saudi Arabia (Alsahali, 2021), but higher than what was reported in Addis Ababa (Mariam et al, 2016;Ahmed, Merga & Alemseged, 2019), Nigeria (Gureje et al, 2015), and Kenya (Ndetei et al, 2011). This result could be attributed to the relatively good knowledge of the matter among participants, extensive exposure to mental illness service provision, and cultural variances.…”

“…The lack of accurate mental health awareness has been reported to be one of the leading factors that may contribute to categorizing people with mental illnesses (Girma & Tesfaye, 2011). Although several studies have assessed attitudes towards people with mental illness and knowledge about MIs (Alsahali, 2021;Hammoudi et al, 2022), data from Yemen are scarce. Therefore, the primary objective of this study was to assess pharmacy students' attitudes toward Mis, people with MIs, and seeking help for mental health.…”

“…The first section of the questionnaire assessed attitudes towards people with Mis; it was adapted from the Hirai and Clum scale (Hirai & Clum, 2000). The second and third domains evaluated attitudes towards seeking help and the level of knowledge of the causes of MIs and were inspired by similar studies in the literature (Abolfotouh et al, 2019;Alsahali, 2021). The draft of the questionnaire was examined for validity (content and face) and reliability.…”