TY - JOUR
T1 - Portraying mental illness and drug addiction as treatable health conditions
T2 - Effects of a randomized experiment on stigma and discrimination
AU - McGinty, Emma E.
AU - Goldman, Howard H.
AU - Pescosolido, Bernice
AU - Barry, Colleen L.
N1 - Funding Information:
Drs. McGinty, Goldman, Pescosolido, and Barry have no financial disclosures. Drs. Barry and McGinty gratefully acknowledge funding from AIG Inc. (PI: Barry), and Drs. Barry, McGinty and Goldman gratefully acknowledge funding from NIMH 1R01MH093414-01A1 (PI: Barry). The data for this study were collected through Time-Sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences (TESS), National Science Foundation (grant 0818839 ). Dr. Pescosolido's participation was supported by an infrastructure grant from the College of Arts and Sciences, Indiana University .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Elsevier Ltd.
Copyright:
Copyright 2016 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2015/2/1
Y1 - 2015/2/1
N2 - Despite significant advances in treatment, stigma and discrimination toward persons with mental illness and drug addiction have remained constant in past decades. Prior work suggests that portraying other stigmatized health conditions (i.e., HIV/AIDS) as treatable can improve public attitudes toward those affected. Our study compared the effects of vignettes portraying persons with untreated and symptomatic versus successfully treated and asymptomatic mental illness and drug addiction on several dimensions of public attitudes about these conditions. We conducted a survey-embedded randomized experiment using a national sample (N=3940) from an online panel. Respondents were randomly assigned to read one of ten vignettes. Vignette one was a control vignette, vignettes 2-5 portrayed individuals with untreated schizophrenia, depression, prescription pain medication addiction and heroin addiction, and vignettes 6-10 portrayed successfully treated individuals with the same conditions. After reading the randomly assigned vignette, respondents answered questions about their attitudes related to mental illness or drug addiction. Portrayals of untreated and symptomatic schizophrenia, depression, and heroin addiction heightened negative public attitudes toward persons with mental illness and drug addiction. In contrast, portrayals of successfully treated schizophrenia, prescription painkiller addiction, and heroin addiction led to less desire for social distance, greater belief in the effectiveness of treatment, and less willingness to discriminate against persons with these conditions. Portrayal of persons with successfully treated mental illness and drug addiction is a promising strategy for reducing stigma and discrimination toward persons with these conditions and improving public perceptions of treatment effectiveness.
AB - Despite significant advances in treatment, stigma and discrimination toward persons with mental illness and drug addiction have remained constant in past decades. Prior work suggests that portraying other stigmatized health conditions (i.e., HIV/AIDS) as treatable can improve public attitudes toward those affected. Our study compared the effects of vignettes portraying persons with untreated and symptomatic versus successfully treated and asymptomatic mental illness and drug addiction on several dimensions of public attitudes about these conditions. We conducted a survey-embedded randomized experiment using a national sample (N=3940) from an online panel. Respondents were randomly assigned to read one of ten vignettes. Vignette one was a control vignette, vignettes 2-5 portrayed individuals with untreated schizophrenia, depression, prescription pain medication addiction and heroin addiction, and vignettes 6-10 portrayed successfully treated individuals with the same conditions. After reading the randomly assigned vignette, respondents answered questions about their attitudes related to mental illness or drug addiction. Portrayals of untreated and symptomatic schizophrenia, depression, and heroin addiction heightened negative public attitudes toward persons with mental illness and drug addiction. In contrast, portrayals of successfully treated schizophrenia, prescription painkiller addiction, and heroin addiction led to less desire for social distance, greater belief in the effectiveness of treatment, and less willingness to discriminate against persons with these conditions. Portrayal of persons with successfully treated mental illness and drug addiction is a promising strategy for reducing stigma and discrimination toward persons with these conditions and improving public perceptions of treatment effectiveness.
KW - Addiction
KW - Discrimination
KW - Mental illness
KW - Stigma
KW - Substance use
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84920264253&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84920264253&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.12.010
DO - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.12.010
M3 - Article
C2 - 25528557
AN - SCOPUS:84920264253
VL - 126
SP - 73
EP - 85
JO - Social Science and Medicine
JF - Social Science and Medicine
SN - 0277-9536
ER -