title: Mental health literacy in Japanese cancer patients: ability to recognize depression and preferences of treatments-comparison with Japanese lay public.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Insufficient knowledge about mental illness and its treatment has been shown to constitute a major barrier to its adequate care for mental illness in the lay public (LP). We therefore examined Japanese cancer patients' (CP) ability to recognize depression and their preferences of its treatments.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred lung CP and 300 LP were selected at random to participate in the study. Structured interviews using a vignette of a person with both cancer and depression were conducted with CP, and those using a vignette of a person with depression were carried out with LP, respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Only 11% of CP recognized the presence of depression in the vignette, while 25% of LP did (p<0.001). There were few significant differences in the preference for standard psychiatric treatments between CP and LP: standard treatments such as antidepressants (CP: 39%, LP: 36%) were less often rated as helpful, whereas non-standard treatments such as physical activity (CP: 85%, LP: 66%) were most often rated as helpful.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results indicated that cancer patients' knowledge about mental illness and its treatment were insufficient. Psychological education may reduce patient-related barriers to seek and to utilize optimal mental health care in cancer patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Cognitive-behavioral Medicine, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Japan. okuyama@med.nagoya-cu.ac.jp
authors.forename: Toru
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Okuyama
authors.forename: Yoshibumi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakane
authors.forename: Chiharu
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Endo
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Seto
authors.forename: Masashi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.forename: Nobuhiko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Seki
authors.forename: Tatsuo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Akechi
authors.forename: Toshiaki A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Furukawa
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Eguchi
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hosaka
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D044466:Asian People; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003710:Demography; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000209:etiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D021641:Recognition, Psychology