Week: 4 Psychological Consequences of Mental Health Awareness Campaigns

What are some campaigns that may increase public awareness of mental health ?

May take the form of public health campaigns Education, prevention, treatment delivered in education contexts Online dissemination, especially in the context of social media.

What are the overarching goals of mental health awareness?

Improving mental health literacy Reducing stigma Increasing help–seeking.

Is there evidence of effectiveness?

Beyondblue - marked and significant changes in states which funded the campaigns compared to those who did not Noted that the studies in the literature DO NOT systematically measure the goals Literature is generally non-conclusive.

What may be some unintended negative effect of school mental health lessons?

concerns about universal prevention in education settings. Some evidence from analysis that universal interventions improve mental health problems in the short-term, but studies are typically of low equality. But several recent LARGE-scale, high quality trials yielded negative outcomes.

What might be a reason that mental health campaigns in schools are negative?

Mechanisms are unclear, but the paper suggests that there may be nocebo effects, or a higher focus on negative contents leads to increased rumination and negative mental health effects. The study DOES note that most interventions have multiple components, therefore, we cannot tell which mechanism/part of the intervention may lead to unintended negative consequences. (simply the awareness, the format, the context etc.) States that there is sufficient evidence to show that there may be unintended negative consequences

Describe the increased symptom reporting and self-diagnosis as unintended negative consequences?

May lead to ‘prevalence inflation’ → wherein report of previously unrecognised symptoms may lead to interpret/report of distress as mental health problems → generally leading to more self-diagnosis.

Describe experimental evidence for the impact of mental health awareness?

There is some evidence to suggest that increased awareness material leads to Increased diagnostic labelling and symptom report Having stronger beliefs about etiology, treatment and recovery. BUT no influence on an individual's amount of symptoms reported 2 x conditions, normalising condition vs. non-normalising conditioning. The normalising conditions were more likely to increase diagnostic labelling, even though there was the same level of self-reported symptoms. Educated about the nocebo effect - reduced the likelihood that individuals would use a diagnostic label to describe their symptoms However, there are still questions about moderators and individual differences, e,g those participants who had a less stable self-concept lead to greater number of symptoms reported.

What are some implications of mental health awareness efforts for adolescents?

Given that it is a period of development of identity and self-concept, suggests that it might be a both a heightened risk for the onset of mental health conditions or a more likely period of incorrect self-diagnosis as it is a period of greater susceptibility to social/peer influences

What is the general consensus on mental health?

these studies offer some tentative support for theoretical concerns that information about mental health can impact how individuals interpret, label and respond to their negative psychological experiences in a problematic way Methodological short-comings, limited number of studies, lack of ecologically valid designs, large samples, and whether there is a need to consider ethnic and cultural differences.