OBJECTIVE Patients' beliefs regarding the cause of illness may influence treatment adherence and long-term outcome. Little is known of adolescents' beliefs regarding the cause of JIA. This study aims to identify adolescents' beliefs about the underlying cause of their arthritis at first presentation to the paediatric rheumatology department. METHODS One hundred and twenty-two adolescents aged...

Evidence on mental illness stigma abounds yet little is known about public perceptions of intellectual disability. This study examined causal beliefs about intellectual disability and schizophrenia and how these relate to awareness of the condition and social distance. UK lay people aged 16+(N=1752), in response to vignettes depicting intellectual disability and schizophrenia, noted their inter...

Health psychology researchers have begun to focus greater attention on people's beliefs about health/illness since these beliefs can clearly affect behavior. This cross-sectional study aimed at (1) identifying the most common factors psychotic patients attribute their illness to and (2) assessing the association between causal attribution and illness perception (cognitive, emotional, and compre...

BACKGROUND Research suggests that "mental illness etiological beliefs" and attitudes toward mentally ill people are significantly related; it has also been demonstrated that adult attachment style and empathic self-efficacy affect such attitudes. Moreover, community or regional culture has a significant impact on etiology beliefs and attitudes toward the mentally sick. MATERIALS AND METHODS W...

Many families worldwide have at least one member with a behavioral or mental disorder, and yet the majority of the public fails to correctly recognize symptoms of mental illness. Previous research has found that Mental Health Literacy (MHL)-the knowledge and positive beliefs about mental disorders-tends to be higher in European and North American cultures, compared to Asian and African cultures...

BACKGROUND Clinicians are encouraged to screen people with chronic physical illness for depression. Screening alone may not improve outcomes, especially if the process is incompatible with patient beliefs. The aim of this research is to understand people's beliefs about depression, particularly in the presence of chronic physical disease. METHODS A mixed method systematic review involving a t...

OBJECTIVE Many anti-stigma programmes use the 'mental illness is an illness like any other' approach. This review evaluates the effectiveness of this approach in relation to schizophrenia. METHOD The academic literature was searched, via PsycINFO and MEDLINE, to identify peer-reviewed studies addressing whether public espousal of a biogenetic paradigm has increased over time, and whether biog...

PURPOSE Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a major cause of disability in older adults. However, there is limited research on the daily experience of living with knee OA. We aimed to offer insight into the beliefs of patients with knee OA about their illness and treatment. METHOD Twenty-four semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 women and 7 men with physician-diagnosed knee OA, aged betw...

BACKGROUND Biological or genetic models of mental illness are commonly expected to increase tolerance towards people with mental illness, by reducing notions of responsibility and blame. AIMS To investigate whether biogenetic causal attributions of mental illness among the general public are associated with more tolerant attitudes, whether such attributions are related to lower perceptions of...