Barriers to Mental Health Treatment: Results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R)

By R. Mojtabai, Mark Olfson, N. Sampson, R. Jin, B. Druss, Philip S. Wang, Kenneth Wells, Harold Alan Pincus, Ronald C. Kessler. Psychological Medicine, 2010

797 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Background The aim was to examine barriers to initiation and continuation of treatment among individuals with common mental disorders in the US general population. Method Respondents in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication with common 12-month DSM-IV mood, anxiety, substance, impulse control and childhood disorders were asked about perceived need for treatment, structural barriers and attitudinal/evaluative barriers to initiation and continuation of treatment. Results Low perceived need was reported by 44.8% of respondents with a disorder who did not seek treatment. Desire to handle the problem on one's own was the most common reason among respondents with perceived need both for not seeking treatment (72.6%) and for dropping out of treatment (42.2%). Attitudinal/evaluative factors were much more important than structural barriers both to initiating (97.4% v. 22.2%) and to continuing (81.9% v. 31.8%) of treatment. Reasons for not seeking treatment varied with illness severity. Low perceived need was a more common reason for not seeking treatment among individuals with mild (57.0%) than moderate (39.3%) or severe (25.9%) disorders, whereas structural and attitudinal/evaluative barriers were more common among respondents with more severe conditions. Conclusions Low perceived need and attitudinal/evaluative barriers are the major barriers to treatment seeking and staying in treatment among individuals with common mental disorders. Efforts to increase treatment seeking and reduce treatment drop-out need to take these barriers into consideration as well as to recognize that barriers differ as a function of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Psychiatry and Mental health, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d94bba653d31980fb4b945b9743056d1fc760a90

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Citations in the corpus

What is the impact of mental health-related stigma on help-seeking? A systematic review of quantitative and qualitative studies (2014, background): “A major national population study concluded that by far the largest treatment barriers was wanting to handle the problem on one’s own, followed by low perceived need for care (Mojtabai et al. 2011).”
Artificially intelligent chatbots in digital mental health interventions: a review (2021, background): “While some individuals do not seek treatment because of low perceived need [6] or attitudinal barriers like perceived stigma [7],”
Barriers to Mental Health Treatment: Results from the WHO World Mental Health (WMH) Surveys (2013, positive): “As in previous surveys, we found that being female, being younger or middle-aged and having severe/ moderate disorders are associated with perceived need for treatment, and with reporting more structural barriers to treatment-seeking (Mojtabai et al. 2002; Cohen-Mansfield & Frank, 2008; Codony et al”
Mental Illness in the Workplace: An Interdisciplinary Review and Organizational Research Agenda (2018, background): “Despite the available options, many employees who have a mental illness fail to seek needed treatment (Mojtabai et al., 2011).”
The Impact of Mental Illness Stigma on Seeking and Participating in Mental Health Care (2014, methodology): “Findings from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication showed that about 45% of respondents with a disorder who did not seek treatment reported low perceived need (Mojtabai et al., 2011).”
Mental health stigma update: A review of consequences (2014, background): “Mojtabai et al. (2011) found that both perceptions of the need for treatment and attitudes toward mental health treatment were stronger predictors of initiating and maintaining treatment than were structural barriers such as fi nances, treatment availability, convenience and transportation.”
The impact of mental health literacy, stigma, and social support on attitudes toward mental health help-seeking (2017, methodology): “Current literature reports that mental illness stigma may discourage people from admitting a need for mental health treatment and/or seeking mental health services even after they acknowledge need for services (Corrigan, 2004; Mojtabai, Olfson, & Mechanic, 2002; Mojtabai et al., 2011).”