Mental Health Literacy for Depression and Schizophrenia among Undergraduate Students in India

This study aimed to examine the level of Mental Health Literacy in terms of diagnosis, treatment, prognosis and help-seeking behavior for Depression and Schizophrenia among Indian Undergraduate students and to draw a comparison with respect to levels of Mental Health Literacy among males and females. The study used a cross-sectional design with snowball sampling. It was carried out in India across various educational institutions. The participants included Undergraduate students aged between 18 and 23 years. All consenting participants were recruited for the study and Google forms consisting of two case vignettes, one for depression and one for Schizophrenia along with questions that followed them were distributed using snowball sampling between February and March 2020. The questions to assess Mental Health Literacy included were constructed in the domains of diagnosis/labelling the disorder, effectiveness of different treatment methods for the disorders, prognosis of the disorder and general help seeking behavior in terms of mental health related issues. Data was analyzed using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences V.21.0. Out of the 324 questionnaires that were completed and submitted, 162 (50%) respondents were males, 159 (49.07%) were females and 3 (0.03%) respondents preferred not to reveal their gender. Participants were able to diagnose/label Depression more accurately but were poor at diagnosing/labelling Schizophrenia. For indicating the presence of a psychological disorder in the vignettes, males demonstrated better Mental Health Literacy as compared to females. In terms of effectiveness of different types of therapies for treatment, religious interventions and using internet sources were rated as least effective treatments for both Depression and Schizophrenia while psychological therapy was rated as the most effective treatment for depression and psychological and drug therapy were rated as the most effective treatments for Schizophrenia. Higher prognosis ratings were given to Depression as compared to Schizophrenia. Females were more optimistic about the prognosis of both disorders as compared to males. Overall, participants demonstrate better Mental Health Literacy for depression as compared to schizophrenia, possibly due to the availability of internet resources, the increased prevalence of depression among the population and the increased attention given to mental health in the Indian context in the recent past.