Psychiatric literacy and the conduct disorders

Past research regarding mental health literacy has indicated that public knowledge is lamentably poor. This study aimed to examine the effect of demographics, experience and personality, as predictors for understanding conduct disorders. An opportunistic sample of 125 participants with a mean age of 24.29 years completed an online questionnaire in which they were asked to describe and evaluate vignettes of 4 conduct disorders. They were asked for their view of what the diagnosis may be: “What is the main problem”, confidence in their diagnosis, and how the person could be helped. The correct diagnosis was given by 42% of the participants in one case but only 8% in another. A content analysis suggested that five types of diagnosis were given: psychological/psychiatric, behavioural, parenting, socio-emotional and lifestyle.There were significant differences in what treatments were thought to be useful between the cases though psychotherapy was thought to be most useful. Limitations of this study are considered.

► A content analysis suggested that lay people identify five types of diagnosis: psychological/psychiatric, behavioural, parenting, socio-emotional and lifestyle.
► There were dramatic differences in what treatments were thought to be useful between the different disorders.
► However psychotherapy was thought, by the sample, to be most useful.