What do people know about mental illness? - survey finds misperceptions of mental illness - Brief Article

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Dec, 1997

A national telephone survey of 1,006 adult Americans was conducted by Roper Starch Worldwide for Janssen Pharmaceuticals to as certain the public's perception and understanding of mental illness. The results showed a number of misperceptions on the public's part.

Fact: Severe mental illnesses are biologically based brain disorders and are caused primarily by chemical imbalances in the brain. However, more than half believe that you can avoid developing chronic depression (65%), obsessive compulsive disorder (59%), and manic depression (53%).

Fact: Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness characterized by a dysfunction of the thinking process, such as hallucinations and delusions, and withdrawal from the outside world. Contrary to popular belief schizophrenia is not"split personality" or "multiple personality," and the vast majority of people who suffer from schizophrenia are not dangerous to others. Yet, a majority associate the following symptoms with schizophrenia: split personality and multiple personality (78% each); insanity, madness, or craziness (71 %); and violence (68%).

Fact: Years of research have proven that schizophrenia is a biologically based brain disease. The brains of people with schizophrenia have elevated dopamine and serotonin activity. Despite these findings, many still believe schizophrenia is caused by drug abuse (63%), the environment in which a person is raised (53%), a nervous breakdown (51%), poor parenting (34%), weak willpower (22%), and/or laziness or idleness (13%).

Fact: At any given time, schizophrenia afflicts approximately one percent of the world's population, including about 2,500,000 adult Americans. Estimates of the number of Americans who suffer from schizophrenia vary widely, however: less than 500,000 (16%), 500,001-1,000,000 (28%),1,000,001-1,500 000 (13%), 1,500,001-2,000,000 (seven percent), over 2,000,000 (21%) don't know (17%).

Fact: The onset of schizophrenia typically occurs between the ages of 16 and 30 and is the single most destructive disease to young lives. Nevertheless, the public's belief of the age at which the symptoms of schizophrenia first occur varies widely: childhood (six percent), the teens (18%), the 20s (11%), the 30s (three percent), the 40s (one percent), the 50s and 60s or older (less than 0.5% each), no one age at which symptoms usually first occur (55%), don't know (six percent).

Fact: There are many treatments available that successfully treat mental illness, but the view of effectiveness of prescription drugs is mixed: very effective (12%), somewhat effective (27%), not very effective (three percent), not at all effective (two percent), depends on the particular type of mental illness (55%), don't know (one percent).