title: Predicting perceived need for mental health care in a community sample: an application of the self-regulatory model.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Most people with mental health problems do not use mental health services, resulting in poor psychiatric outcomes and greater illness burden. Although perceiving the need for mental health care was identified to be a key factor for service use, factors that explain differences in perceived need for mental health care are incompletely understood. The present paper investigates the role of illness representations in predicting perceived need for mental health care.
  
  
  METHODS
  In a community sample of 202 persons currently distressed by symptoms related to mental illness, illness representations were assessed using the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire and perceived need for mental health care was measured by the Self-Appraisal of Illness Questionnaire. Multiple linear regression models were used to determine the association between a person's illness representations and the level of perceived need for mental health care.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Two illness representations were positively associated with perceived need for mental health care: the belief that treatment could improve the current mental health problem and the attribution of experienced symptoms to a mental health problem. Increased perceived need for care was related to current mental health service use.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Interventions that aim to increase mental health service use could focus on people's attitudes toward mental health treatment and enable people to recognize symptoms as a mental illness.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry II, University of Ulm and BKH Günzburg, Parkstrasse 11, 89073, Ulm, Germany. nathalie.oexle@googlemail.com.
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Oexle
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Zurich University Hospital of Psychiatry, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Vladeta
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ajdacic-Gross
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Zurich University Hospital of Psychiatry, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Zurich University Hospital of Psychiatry, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rodgers
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Zurich University Hospital of Psychiatry, Zurich, Switzerland.|Laboratory of Neuroscience (LIM27), Institute of Psychiatry, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Wulf
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Rössler
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry II, University of Ulm and BKH Günzburg, Parkstrasse 11, 89073, Ulm, Germany.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rüsch
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003156:Community Mental Health Services; D059026:Diagnostic Self Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D008960:Models, Psychological; D020380:Needs Assessment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Help-seeking; Illness representations; Mental illness; Perceived need; Self-regulatory model