Research progress on depression literacy and stigmatizing attitudes among different populations

Abstract

Depression is a type of mental disease that seriously endangers human physical and mental health， which may lead to harmful behaviors， such as self-injury and suicide. Besides， depression is the strongest single risk factor associated with suicide. Poor depression literacy may affect the identification of depressive symptoms， intention to seek assistance and sense of shame in patients， resulting in delayed treatment and missing the opportunity of early treatment. At present， public stigmatizing attitudes and self-stigma of the patients are still severe social issues. Depression stigmatizing attitudes may cause a disease stigma in patients， which is the primary cause of discontinuing psychiatric treatment. In this article， depression literacy and stigma among different populations were reviewed and relevant factors were analyzed， aiming to enhance public depression literacy， minimize stigmatizing attitudes and mitigate the sense of stigma in depression patients.

Keywords

• |depression|literacy|stigma|stigmatizing attitudes