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Mental health literacy in Japanese cancer patients: ability to recognize depression and preferences of treatments—comparison with Japanese lay public
Author(s) -
Okuyama Toru,
Nakane Yoshibumi,
Endo Chiharu,
Seto Takashi,
Kato Masashi,
Seki Nobuhiko,
Akechi Tatsuo,
Furukawa Toshiaki A.,
Eguchi Kenji,
Hosaka Takashi
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
psycho‐oncology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.41
H-Index - 137
eISSN - 1099-1611
pISSN - 1057-9249
DOI - 10.1002/pon.1119
Subject(s) - vignette , mental health literacy , depression (economics) , mental illness , medicine , mental health , psychiatry , preference , cancer , lung cancer , clinical psychology , psychology , social psychology , economics , macroeconomics , microeconomics
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. Participants and Method : 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. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.