title: Mental Health Literacy, Attitudes to Help Seeking, and Perceived Need as Predictors of Mental Health Service Use: A Longitudinal Study.
abstract: Many people with mental health problems do not use mental health care, resulting in poorer clinical and social outcomes. Reasons for low service use rates are still incompletely understood. In this longitudinal, population-based study, we investigated the influence of mental health literacy, attitudes toward mental health services, and perceived need for treatment at baseline on actual service use during a 6-month follow-up period, controlling for sociodemographic variables, symptom level, and a history of lifetime mental health service use. Positive attitudes to mental health care, higher mental health literacy, and more perceived need at baseline significantly predicted use of psychotherapy during the follow-up period. Greater perceived need for treatment and better literacy at baseline were predictive of taking psychiatric medication during the following 6 months. Our findings suggest that mental health literacy, attitudes to treatment, and perceived need may be targets for interventions to increase mental health service use.
authors.affiliation: *Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Hospital of Psychiatry, University of Zürich, Switzerland; †Institute of Psychiatry, Laboratory of Neuroscience (LIM27), University of Sao Paulo, Brazil; and ‡Department of Psychiatry II, University of Ulm and BKH Günzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Herdis
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bonabi
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.forename: Vladeta
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ajdacic-Gross
authors.forename: Jochen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Eisele
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rodgers
authors.forename: Erich
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Seifritz
authors.forename: Wulf
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Rössler
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rüsch
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D057220:Health Literacy; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000066505:Help-Seeking Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D008603:Mental Health; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000627:therapeutic use; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013557:Switzerland; D014600:Utilization Review / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D011619:Psychotropic Drugs