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Understanding of the term ‘schizophrenia’ by the British public

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Jason Luty
Affiliation:
Cambridge and Peterborough Mental Health NHS Trust, The Taylor Centre, Queensway House, Essex Street, Southend on Sea, Essex SS4 1RB, email: [email protected]
Daniel Fekadu
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, Maudsley Hospital, London
Arun Dhandayudham
Affiliation:
Northamptonshire Drug and Alcohol Service, Northampton
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Abstract

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Columns
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2006

There have been significant milestones in the detection and treatment of most psychiatric disorders, especially in the past two decades. However, there are some concerns about media misrepresentation of severe mental disorders such as schizophrenia. A postal survey of the UK public was conducted in order to examine their understanding of the term ‘schizophrenia’.

We distributed 500 questionnaires to a representative panel of the UK general population recruited for a previous study (Reference Luty, Fekadu and UmohLuty et al, 2006) and received 402 completed replies (81% response rate). Participants were asked the open-ended question ‘What do you understand by the term “ schizophrenia”?’ and 42% described at least one Schneiderian first-rank symptom or gave a description that reasonably matched one of the diagnostic features in ICD–10. This included 26% who described auditory hallucinations; 40% mentioned ‘split’ or ‘ multiple’ personality, which is not a diagnostic feature. Only 6% mentioned violence or aggression. In comparison, 73.6% of participants correctly identified the symptoms of schizophrenia from a series of vignettes in a Swiss study (Reference Lauber, Nordt and FalcatoLauber et al, 2003). Our survey reveals some wide gaps between the professional and public understanding of the term ‘schizophrenia’.

References

Lauber, C., Nordt, C., Falcato, L., et al (2003) Do people recognise mental illness? Factors influencing mental health literacy. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 253, 248251.Google Scholar
Luty, J., Fekadu, D., Umoh, O., et al (2006) Validation of a short instrument to measure stigmatised attitudes towards mental illness. Psychiatric Bulletin, 30, 257260.Google Scholar
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