Conflicting Advice between Spiritual Leaders, Friends and Family, and Mental Health Providers: Impacts on Mental Health Treatment-Seeking Behaviors.

This study aimed to examine the effects of advice from religious/spiritual leaders and friends/family of a religious/spiritual person with mental health struggles on treatment-seeking. A survey was administered to adult patients of a university-affiliated psychiatric clinic in the Midwest. Participants whose friends/family members' advice conflicted with their psychiatrist's advice were six times more likely to delay seeking mental health treatment (OR: 6.09, 95% CI: 1.37, 27.01). Conflict between religious/spiritual leader's advice and psychiatrist's advice had a significant effect on delay in seeking mental health treatment (OR: 11.73, 95% CI: 2.21, 62.14), with an average delay of just over two years.