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Mental Health Literacy of Depression and Postnatal Depression

As is known to all, mental illness can disrupt an individual’s ability to relate to their family, friends, colleagues, and broader community, leading to significant distress and disability. Postnatal depression (PND) is a mental health condition that develops between one month and up to one year after the birth of a baby. It can affect anyone. Although it’s more commonly reported by mothers, it can affect any new parents—both moms and dads—and it can affect parents who adopt. Postpartum depression is likely caused by many different factors that work together, including family history, biology, personality, life experiences, and the environment (especially sleep deprivation).

Mental health literacy is defined as “knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders which aid their recognition, management or prevention”. It has received increasing attention as a useful strategy to promote early identification of mental disorders, reduce stigma and enhance help-seeking behaviors. However, mental health literacy for PND has not received much attention or been widely measured in Australia. The present experimental study examined mental health literacy of postnatal depression (PND) in an Australian community sample.

Five hundred and twenty Australians (427 females) participated in an experimental study. Participants’ ages ranged from 18 to 75 years old (M = 33.73, SD = 9.55), with the majority being female (85.4%, n = 427), parents (73.2%, n = 366), and holding a university degree (54.6%, n = 273). They were randomly presented with one of three vignettes describing a “depressive” episode and then completed an online questionnaire examining mental health literacy and the capacity to recognize PND and its risk factors as well as the ability to source appropriate information. SPSS version 19 was used for statistical analyses.

Generally, the ability to recognize PND and the overall mental health literacy of the sample were high. Causation, however, was often misattributed to biological or environmental/social factors. PND recognition was found to be significantly affected by perception of the attachment relationship presented in two of the vignettes. In short, perception of attachment impacts PND recognition and this may negatively impact help-seeking behaviors.


Article by Einar B. Thorsteinsson, et al, from University of New England, Armidale, Australia.

Full access: http://suo.im/58f4Rw

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