How can the utilisation of help for mental disorders be improved? A quasi-experimental online study on the changeability of stigmatising attitudes and intermediate variables in the process of utilisation.

Background: Epidemiological studies show that even in highly developed countries many people with depression do not seek help for their mental health issues, despite promising prevention approaches encouraging people to seek help and reduce self-stigma. Therefore, an anti-stigma intervention study to support help-seeking behaviour will be developed on the basis of the newly explicated "Seeking Mental Health Care Model".

Methods: A quasi-experimental online study will be carried out to assess the effect of different intervention variables relevant for the help-seeking process.

Self-labeling as having a mental or physical illness: the effects of stigma and implications for help-seeking.

Purpose: Personal and perceived stigma can hinder persons in appraising their symptoms as constituting part of a mental illness (self-labeling), an important early step in the help-seeking process. This study examines the impact of personal and perceived stigma on self-labeling and provides prospective data on the possible connections between self-labeling and help-seeking behavior.

Methods: Personal stigmatizing attitudes, perceived stigma and self-labeling behavior as well as their statistical connections were cross-sectionally investigated in a community sample of 207 participants with a present untreated mental health problem.

ADHD, stigma and continuum beliefs: A population survey on public attitudes towards children and adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

ADHD is a mental illness of high epidemiological and clinical importance, embedded in a complex socio-cultural context. We estimated the prevalence of attitudes related to ADHD in a representative population survey in Germany (n = 1008) after presenting an unlabelled vignette of a child or an adult with ADHD. Relations of personal experience, interpersonal contact and continuum beliefs with emotions and social distance were calculated using path models.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in Children and Adults: A Population Survey on Public Beliefs.

To investigate beliefs and attitudes of the public toward attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children and adults. In a representative population survey in Germany ( = 1,008) using computer-assisted telephone interviews, we asked participants about causal beliefs, illness recognition, treatment recommendations, and beliefs about ADHD, presenting an unlabelled vignette of a child or an adult with ADHD. The most frequently endorsed causal beliefs for the depicted child with ADHD were "TV or Internet," "lack of parental affection," and "broken home.

Title: Brief Implicit Association Tests of Stigmatizing Attitudes, Awareness of Mental Distress and Label-Avoidance: A Study in People with Depressive Symptoms.

This study aims to develop and implement brief implicit association tests (BIATs) assessing stigmatizing attitudes towards mental illness, awareness of mental distress and self-identification as having a mental illness. We recruited 229 people (age range 18-80 years) with currently untreated depressive symptoms. In addition to BIATs, explicit measures assessed depression severity, contact experience and self-identification as having a mental illness.

Validity and psychometric properties of the Self-Identification as Having a Mental Illness Scale (SELF-I) among currently untreated persons with mental health problems.

Conceptualizing own symptoms as potential signs of a mental illness is an important, yet under-researched step towards appropriate help. Few validated measures address recognition and identification of own mental illness. Aim of this study is to investigate performance and correlates of the 'Self-Identification as Having a Mental Illness' scale (SELF-I) in a group of 229 currently untreated individuals with mental health problems, predominantly depression.

Substance Abuse-Related Self-Stigma in Women with Substance Use Disorder and Comorbid Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Background: Self-stigma is a result of internalizing negative stereotypes by the affected person. Research on self-stigma in substance use disorders (SUD) is still scarce, especially regarding the role of childhood trauma and subsequent posttraumatic disorders.

Objectives: The present study investigated the progressive model of self-stigma in women with SUD and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and the predictive value of PTSD severity and childhood trauma experiences on self-stigma.

Psychometric validation of the self-identification of having a mental illness (SELF-I) scale and the relationship with stigma and help-seeking among young people.

Purpose: Self-identification of having a mental illness has been shown to be an important factor underpinning help-seeking behaviour and may mediate the relationship between personal stigma and mental health service use. This study validates a new scale for the self-identification of having a mental illness among a non-clinical, community cohort of young people in the UK.

Methods: Following consultation with a group of young person experts with experience of mental health problems, we evaluated the psychometric properties of the self-identification of mental illness scale (SELF-I) among 423 young people aged 13-24 years who are part of an ongoing prospective community cohort.

Stigma as a barrier to recognizing personal mental illness and seeking help: a prospective study among untreated persons with mental illness.

It is unclear to what extent failure to recognize symptoms as potential sign of a mental illness is impeding service use, and how stigmatizing attitudes interfere with this process. In a prospective study, we followed a community sample of 188 currently untreated persons with mental illness (predominantly depression) over 6 months. We examined how lack of knowledge, prejudice and discrimination impacted on self-identification as having a mental illness, perceived need, intention to seek help, and help-seeking, both with respect to primary care (visiting a general practitioner, GP) and specialist care (seeing a mental health professional, MHP).

[Depression Literacy - German Translation and Testing of the Depression Literacy Scale].

Objective: Translation and psychometric testing of a German adaptation of the Australian Depression Literacy Scale.

Methods: Translation of the Depression Literacy Scale by Griffith et al. (2004) into German and testing for depression literacy in a sample of 229 people with depressive syndrome.

Associations between causal attributions and personal stigmatizing attitudes in untreated persons with current mental health problems.

Past research has shown that among the general public, certain causal explanations like biomedical causes are associated with stronger desire for social distance from persons with mental illness. Aim of this study was to find out how different causal attributions of persons with untreated mental health problems regarding their own complaints are associated with stigmatizing attitudes, anticipated self-stigma when seeking help and perceived stigma-stress. Altogether, 207 untreated persons with a current depressive syndrome were interviewed.

The Stigma of Mental Illness as a Barrier to Self Labeling as Having a Mental Illness.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether personal stigma decreases self-identification as having a mental illness in individuals with untreated mental health problems. We interviewed 207 persons with a currently untreated mental health problem as confirmed by a structured diagnostic interview. Measures included symptom appraisal, self-identification as having a mental illness (SELFI), self-labeling (open-ended question on the nature of their problem) stigma-related variables (explicit and implicit), as well as sociodemographics, current symptom severity, and previous treatment.

Shifting blame? Impact of reports of violence and mental illness in the context of terrorism on population attitudes towards persons with mental illness in Germany.

We examine whether reporting on violent and terrorist acts committed in July 2016 by persons who, among other characteristics, were suspected to have mental health issues did impact on mental illness stigma, and whether any changes added to changes observed after the Germanwings plane crash in 2015. Three identical online surveys (in 2014, 2015 and 2016) were conducted among persons >15 years old from an established market research panel in Germany (N=2195). Participants answered questions about a woman ("Anne") with either depression or schizophrenia as described in an unlabeled vignette.