The stigma and shame associated with mental illness can prevent people from seeking help. This can lead to much poorer outcomes as patients may often miss out on vital treatment early on in their illness. A number of theories have been put forward to explain why certain groups (e.g. young people, men, refugees) seem less [read the full story…]
A new cross-sectional survey published in The Lancet has revealed some unsurprising but nonetheless sobering facts about how people with depression are stigmatised. The research team, funded by money from the European Commission, interviewed 1,082 people with depression from 35 countries across the world. They used the discrimination and stigma scale (version 12; DISC-12) to [read the full story…]
Following the media coverage of the NHS statistics published last week that reported a large rise in antidepressant prescribing, Martin Brunet (a GP from Surrey and author of the excellent Binscombe Doctor Blog) has written an opinion piece that explores the positive and negative aspects of this complex story: “Are GPs prescribing antidepressants too readily?” [read the full story…]
