MedUNAB (Oct 2007)
Attitudes towards the mental disorder and towards the search of professional psychological support. A systematic revision of studies in Europe, United States, Latin America and the Caribbean
Abstract
The present study had the intention to review like a systematicmethod the studies carried out in countries of Europe, United States,Latin America, and the Caribbean about attitudes towards the mentaldisorder and the search of professional support in case of mentalsdisorders, its convergences, divergences, limitations, tendenciesand profits. The systematic revision followed the methodology ofdocumentary investigation. The search of studies was carried outfrom 1962 to 2006, in the data bases Ebsco and Proquest using thekey words: “attitudes about mental illness”, “perceptions and beliefsabout mental disorders”, “psychological help-seeking attitudes” and“attitudes toward seeking psychological help”. The strategy searchthrew 160 articles; 38 articles finally fulfilled the criteria to be considered in the revision, of these, 21 was in base Proquest and the rest in Ebsco. The revision puts in evidence the use of nonprobabilistic designs of sampling, limitations for the generalization of the findings,poor man information on the sociodemographic characteristics of thesamples, instruments very varied that make difficult the comparison.Predominantly favorable attitudes were specially towards the mentalupheaval and the search of professional aid in urban women of zone. There was predominance of the studies with population of great urban centers in comparison with countryside.
