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Social contact effectively improves mental illness-related stigma

Interventions that employ social contact appeared to be the most effective in improving stigma related to mental illness, according to a review in The Lancet.

“Several theoretical approaches to mental health–related stigma and discrimination have been developed including social cognitive models that give salience to stereotypes (negative beliefs about a group), prejudice (agreement with stereotyped beliefs, or negative emotional reactions such as fear or anger, or both), and discrimination (behavioral consequence of prejudice, such as exclusion from social and economic opportunities),” Graham Thornicroft, PhD, of the Center for Global Mental Health at King’s College, London, and colleagues wrote. “By contrast, sociological theories consider public stigma as a wider societal force affecting both the individual and society as a whole.”

Graham Thornicroft

Researchers reviewed articles published from January 1970 to December 2012 on effective interventions to reduce mental illness–related stigma or discrimination.

The most commonly tested intervention types were educational or informational, followed by those that incorporated social contact.

Researchers found a “fairly consistent” pattern of short-term benefits for positive attitude change and less evidence for knowledge improvement, at a population level.

For individuals with mental illness, some anti-stigma group interventions had promising results and require further research, according to researchers.

Social contact interventions were the most effective for adults, however, they usually result in short-term improvement in attitude, but its effect was less clear in the long-term. These interventions also less often increase knowledge.

The researchers recommend exercising caution regarding overgeneralizing lessons between target groups.

“The issues described here can be used to set the agenda for future research in the field of mental health-related stigma and discrimination. Furthermore, there is a need to examine differentiated subpopulations to identify effective interventions and their delivery platforms, which includes the use of social media forms of social contact for young people, who represent only 3·7% of participants in stigma studies,” Thornicroft and colleagues wrote. “Research is also needed to better understand some of the most important possible consequences of stigma, such as delayed or prevented help-seeking and access to health care, potential contribution to self-harm and suicide, the denial of human rights, and barriers to full social participation such as employment and family life.” – by Amanda Oldt

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.