Martinez Larry R, Xu Shi, Hebl Michelle
Department of Psychology, The Portland State University, Portland, OR, 97201, USA.
School of Hospitality &Tourism Management, University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH, UK.
Community Ment Health J. 2018 May;54(4):450-459. doi: 10.1007/s10597-017-0174-z. Epub 2017 Oct 11.
The incidence of depression has been increasing. One of the best interventions for depression is taking antidepressant medications. However, the stigma of taking antidepressants has been shown to be a barrier not only to seeking an antidepressant regimen but also adhering to it. This may have negative consequences for people who suffer from depression. Thus, in two studies, we investigate the incidence of felt stigma of taking antidepressants among clinically depressed individuals who take antidepressants and the effectiveness of two possible interventions to reduce this stigma among others. Study 1 revealed that stigma toward individuals who take antidepressants is a reality, either because people were not educated about depression and antidepressants, or because they did not show empathy or did not take on perspectives from the victim's point-of-view. Based on these results, we used an experimental design in Study 2 to investigate the effects of education and perspective-taking interventions in diminishing the stigma of taking antidepressants. These results suggest that participant gender played a moderating role in the effectiveness of education and perspective taking, such that a combination of the two interventions resulted in lower stigma for men but not for women. These results suggest that people can be trained (using a simple, low-fidelity intervention) to be more accepting of antidepressant use among their friends, family members, and colleagues, resulting in better outcomes for those who benefit from taking antidepressants.
抑郁症的发病率一直在上升。治疗抑郁症的最佳干预措施之一是服用抗抑郁药物。然而，服用抗抑郁药物的污名已被证明不仅是寻求抗抑郁治疗方案的障碍，也是坚持该方案的障碍。这可能会给抑郁症患者带来负面后果。因此，在两项研究中，我们调查了服用抗抑郁药物的临床抑郁症患者中感受到的抗抑郁药物污名的发生率，以及两种可能的干预措施在减少其他人这种污名方面的有效性。研究1表明，对抗抑郁药物使用者的污名是一个现实，要么是因为人们没有接受过关于抑郁症和抗抑郁药物的教育，要么是因为他们缺乏同理心，或者没有从受害者的角度看待问题。基于这些结果，我们在研究2中采用了实验设计，以调查教育和换位思考干预措施在减少服用抗抑郁药物污名方面的效果。这些结果表明，参与者的性别在教育和换位思考的有效性方面起到了调节作用，即两种干预措施的结合对男性的污名减少有效果，但对女性没有效果。这些结果表明，可以通过（使用简单、低成本的干预措施）培训人们，使其更能接受朋友、家人和同事服用抗抑郁药物，从而为那些受益于服用抗抑郁药物的人带来更好的结果。
