WINNIPEG – Attitudes towards mental health care haven’t improved since the 1970s – they’ve become less positive, a study led by a Winnipeg researcher suggests.
The research, an analysis of 22 studies of 6,800 U.S. college and university students since 1970, found positive attitudes towards seeking mental health have decreased over time.
Dr. Corey MacKenzie, the University of Manitoba psychology professor who is the lead author of the study, said he and his colleagues were shocked by the findings.
“We thought that attitudes would become more positive, and we found exactly the opposite, so that was the surprise,” he said.
The research analyzed studies that used questionnaires to gauge U.S. university students’ attitudes towards seeking mental health care – primarily questions about seeking talk-based care such as counselling. Higher scores indicated a more positive attitude towards mental-health care.
The researchers found the scores dropped from an average of 58 on the scale in the early 1970s to 48 in 2008.
That drop reflects a reluctance to seek non-drug treatments, MacKenzie said, because while attitudes towards seeking such care have become increasingly less positive, use of drugs such as antidepressants has risen.
“People are becoming more positive in their attitudes towards seeking biological treatments — antidepressants, medications primarily — and then becoming more negative … in terms of their attitudes towards seeking psychological services,” MacKenzie said.
Data shows antidepressant use doubled from 37 per cent in 1987 to 75 per cent in 2007, but use of psychotherapy dropped from 71 per cent in 1987 to 43 per cent in 2007, he said.
Marketing may be part of the problem, he said.
“There’s a lot of money and a lot of political power behind big pharma companies,” he said. “We (psychologists) have got a very good product – we’re just not getting the message out that it’s a good product.”
Winnipeg mental-health advocate and comedian Big Daddy Tazz, who has bipolar disorder, said he’s not surprised by the findings.
“We live in a society where it’s instant fix,” said Tazz, who’s also known as the “Bipolar Bhudda.” “It’s easy to just take a pill.”
He uses both medication and talk therapy to stay healthy.
“Medication doesn’t always work,” said Tazz, who works with the Mood Disorders Association of Manitoba to help destigmatize mental health disorders.
He has another theory for why talk therapy isn’t as popular as a pill – people now communicate through technology, not face-to-face.
“Talk therapy is crazy important, because you can hear the emotion in somebody’s voice,” he said. “We’ve lost the ability to talk.”
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