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Understanding of the term ‘schizophrenia’ by the British public

Cambridge and Peterborough Mental Health NHS Trust, The Taylor Centre, Queensway House, Essex Street, Southend on Sea, Essex SS4 1RB, email: s1006h3607{at}blueyonder.co.uk

Daniel Fekadu, Lecturer in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Institute of Psychiatry, Maudsley Hospital, London

Arun Dhandayudham, Consultant Psychiatrist

Northamptonshire Drug and Alcohol Service, Northampton

There have been significant milestones in the detection and treatment of most psychiatric disorders, especially in the past two decades. However, there are some concerns about media misrepresentation of severe mental disorders such as schizophrenia. A postal survey of the UK public was conducted in order to examine their understanding of the term ‘schizophrenia’.

We distributed 500 questionnaires to a representative panel of the UK general population recruited for a previous study (Luty et al, 2006) and received 402 completed replies (81% response rate). Participants were asked the open-ended question ‘What do you understand by the term "schizophrenia"?’ and 42% described at least one Schneiderian first-rank symptom or gave a description that reasonably matched one of the diagnostic features in ICD–10. This included 26% who described auditory hallucinations; 40% mentioned ‘split’ or ‘multiple’ personality, which is not a diagnostic feature. Only 6% mentioned violence or aggression. In comparison, 73.6% of participants correctly identified the symptoms of schizophrenia from a series of vignettes in a Swiss study (Lauber et al, 2003). Our survey reveals some wide gaps between the professional and public understanding of the term ‘schizophrenia’.

References

LAUBER, C., NORDT, C., FALCATO, L., et al (2003) Do people recognise mental illness? Factors influencing mental health literacy. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 253, 248 –251.[CrossRef][Medline]

LUTY, J., FEKADU, D., UMOH, O., et al (2006) Validation of a short instrument to measure stigmatised attitudes towards mental illness. Psychiatric Bulletin, 30, 257 –260.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

This Article Full Text (PDF) Submit an eLetter Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Luty, J. Articles by Dhandayudham, A. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Luty, J. Articles by Dhandayudham, A.