***TASK*** the task is to summarize an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***INPUT*** the input is a biomedical literature 
    ***OUTPUT*** the output is the summary of an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***DOCUMENTATION*** 
    ***EXAMPLES*** 
    Input: Objective It is often assumed that individual stigmatizing attitudes toward the mentally ill are linked to stigmatizing attitudes in the social milieu and that both , individual and social stigmatizing attitudes are major barriers to mental health treatment seeking . This study aims to examine these assumptions . Method Data from the 2005–2006 Eurobarometer general population survey ( N = 29,248 ) are used to examine the association of social stigmatizing attitudes assessed in a r and om half of the sample with individual stigmatizing attitudes assessed in the other half of the sample , and to examine the association of both individual and social stigmatizing attitudes with willingness to seek professional help . Results Social stigmatizing attitudes are specifically and strongly associated with individual stigmatizing attitudes . Both social and individual stigmatizing attitudes are associated with willingness to seek professional help . Believing the mentally ill to be dangerous or not likely to recover , or living in a community with such beliefs , are associated with increased willingness to seek help ; whereas , believing the mentally ill to be unpredictable or blameworthy for their illness , or living in a community with strong beliefs in blameworthiness of the mentally ill , are associated with decreased willingness to seek professional help . Conclusion The view that all stigmatizing attitudes toward mental illness are associated with reluctance to seek professional help may be naive as some stigmatizing attitudes may be associated with increased willingness to seek help . The complex association of different stigmatizing attitudes with professional help seeking should be carefully considered in planning anti-stigma campaigns Background Early detection and treatment of mental disorders in adolescents and young adults can lead to better health outcomes . Mental health literacy is a key to early recognition and help seeking . Whilst a number of population health initiatives have attempted to improve mental health literacy , none to date have specifically targeted young people nor have they applied the rigorous st and ards of population health models now accepted as best practice in other health areas . This paper describes the outcomes from the application of a health promotion model to the development , implementation and evaluation of a community awareness campaign design ed to improve mental health literacy and early help seeking amongst young people . Method The Compass Strategy was implemented in the western metropolitan Melbourne and Barwon regions of Victoria , Australia . The Precede-Proceed Model guided the population assessment , campaign strategy development and evaluation . The campaign included the use of multimedia , a website , and an information telephone service . Multiple levels of evaluation were conducted . This included a cross-sectional telephone survey of mental health literacy undertaken before and after 14 months of the campaign using a quasi-experimental design . R and omly selected independent sample s of 600 young people aged 12–25 years from the experimental region and another 600 from a comparison region were interviewed at each time point . A series of binary logistic regression analyses were used to measure the association between a range of campaign outcome variables and the predictor variables of region and time . Results The program was judged to have an impact on the following variables , as indicated by significant region-by-time interaction effects ( p < 0.05 ) : awareness of mental health campaigns , self-identified depression , help for depression sought in the previous year , correct estimate of prevalence of mental health problems , increased awareness of suicide risk , and a reduction in perceived barriers to help seeking . These effects may be underestimated because media distribution error result ed in a small amount of print material " leaking " into the comparison region . Conclusion We believe this is the first study to apply the rigorous st and ards of a health promotion model including the use of a control region to a mental health population intervention . The program achieved many of its aims despite the relatively short duration and moderate intensity of the campaign A study was conducted to assess the belief systems of the general public concerning the appropriate treatments for mental disorders and correlates of these belief systems . The study was based on the results of a household survey of the general public in Australia , using a national r and om sample of 2,031 adults aged 18–74 years . Respondents were given a vignette describing either a person with depression or one with schizophrenia , and were asked for their opinions about the helpfulness of various professional and non-professional treatments for the person described . A principal components analysis of the helpfulness ratings gave three factors : a Medical factor with high loadings on all drug treatments ( exceptVitamins ) and onPsychiatric ward and ECT ; a Psychological factor with high loadings onCounsellor , Social worker , Phone counselling , Psychiatrist , Psychologist , Psychotherapy and Hypnosis ; and a Lifestyle factor with high loadings onClose family , Close friends , Naturopath , Vitamins , Physical activity and Get out more . The same factors emerged from ratings of the two vignettes . Mean scores on scales constructed from the items with high loadings showed that the public tend to have a negative view of medical treatments and a positive view of psychological and lifestyle ones . However , medical treatments were rated more negatively for depression than for schizophrenia , psychological treatments were rated more positively for schizophrenia , and lifestyle treatments more positively for depression . Age , sex and education of respondents showed few associations with scores on the scales , although the better educated were more in favour of psychological treatments for both depression and schizophrenia and were less opposed to medical treatments for schizophrenia . Respondents who had suffered from the symptoms described in the schizophrenia vignette were more negative towards medical treatments . These findings about public belief systems could have implication s for the provision of treatment : where there is a discrepancy in belief system between the patient and the clinician there may be poor adherence to treatment In connection with two attempts on the lives of prominent politicians committed by mentally ill individuals during 1990 there occurred a marked increase in social distance towards the mentally ill among the German public . Even though the level of social distance subsided again during the 2 years following the attacks , it had not yet completely returned to its initial level by the end of 1992 . The negative effects of these incidents on the attitude of the general public were able to be replicated on a regional level , after yet another violent attack by a mentally ill assailant in 1993 , this time on the life of a famous female athlete BACKGROUND Many people who are depressed do not receive any professional help and their beliefs about the helpfulness of treatment do not always correspond with those of health professionals . To facilitate choices about treatment , the present study examined the effects of providing depressed people in the community with evidence on whether various treatment options work . METHOD A r and omized controlled trial was carried out with 1094 persons selected at r and om from the community who screened positive for depressive symptoms and agreed to participate . Participants were mailed either an evidence -based consumer guide to treatments for depression or , as a control , a general brochure on depression . Outcomes were the rated usefulness of the information provided , changes in attitudes to depression treatments , actions taken to reduce depression , and changes in depressive symptoms , anxiety symptoms and disability . RESULTS Participants rated the evidence -based consumer guide as more useful than the control brochure . Attitudes to some treatments changed . Improvements in symptoms and disability did not differ significantly between interventions . CONCLUSION Providing people who are depressed with evidence on which treatments work produces some changes in attitudes and behaviour . However , this intervention may need to be enhanced if it is to produce symptom change OBJECTIVE In recent years , mass shootings by persons with serious mental illness have received extensive news media coverage . The authors test the effects of news stories about mass shootings on public attitudes toward persons with serious mental illness and support for gun control policies . They also examine whether news coverage of proposals to prevent persons with serious mental illness from having guns exacerbates the public 's negative attitudes toward this group . METHOD The authors conducted a survey-embedded r and omized experiment using a national sample ( N=1,797 ) from an online panel . Respondents were r and omly assigned to groups instructed to read one of three news stories or to a no-exposure control group . The news stories described , respectively , a mass shooting by a person with serious mental illness , the same mass shooting and a proposal for gun restrictions for persons with serious mental illness , and the same mass shooting and a proposal to ban large-capacity magazines . Outcome measures included attitudes toward working with or living near a person with serious mental illness , perceived dangerousness of persons with serious mental illness , and support for gun restrictions for persons with serious mental illness and for a ban on large-capacity magazines . RESULTS Compared with the control group , the story about a mass shooting heightened respondents ' negative attitudes toward persons with serious mental illness and raised support for gun restrictions for this group and for a ban on large-capacity magazines . Including information about the gun restriction policy in a story about a mass shooting did not heighten negative attitudes toward persons with serious mental illness or raise support for the restrictions . CONCLUSIONS The aftermath of mass shootings is often viewed as a window of opportunity to garner support for gun control policies , but it also exacerbates negative attitudes toward persons with serious mental illness Over the years a lot of research of attitudes towards mental disorders , towards people with mental illness and towards psychiatric services and treatment have shown a persistent negative attitude . There are , however , few studies on changes over time . The aim of this study was to compare responses to a question naire on attitudes towards mental disorders and psychiatric patients  and the perception of  psychiatric treatment in a community in northern Sweden in 1976 and 2003 . In 1976 a r and om sample of 391 persons 18–70 years of age were asked and in 2003 a new sample of 500 persons from the same community were approached with the same questions . There are considerable changes over time . In 2003 , almost 90 % agree to the statement that mental illness harms the reputation more than physical illness , compared with 50 % in 1976 . In 2003 , 51 % agreed to the statement “ Most people with mental disorders commit violent acts more than others ” compared with 24 % in 1976 . There is an apparent ambivalence towards psychiatric treatment . Whilst 88 % would advice a person with mental problems to contact a psychiatrist , still 26 % would not like themselves to be referred to a psychiatrist . We argue that improving treatment methods is as important as changing attitudes through accurate information Many anti-stigma campaigns emphasize biogenetic causes to convey that schizophrenia is an " illness like others " . A growing body of studies shows that although biogenetic explanations reduce blame , they tend to reinforce prognostic pessimism and harsher treatment of people with schizophrenia . In contrast , psychosocial explanations attenuate prognostic pessimism and perceived otherness , but seem less suitable to reduce blame . We hypothesized that a vulnerability-stress model that combines biogenetic and psychosocial explanations would yield clearer stigma-reducing effects than the mono-causal models . In an online-experiment , 416 participants from the general population r and omly received either a vulnerability-stress , biogenetic , psychosocial or control-intervention , which consisted of information text and video presentation of a case-example . Causal beliefs , stereotypes and desired social distance were assessed by self-report . Baseline causal beliefs were weakly associated with stereotypes . The vulnerability-stress intervention did not reduce stigma more effectively than the biogenetic or psychosocial intervention and was less effective in reducing perceived blame than the biogenetic intervention . Compared to the control-intervention , no intervention showed significant stigma-reducing effects , but the psychosocial and vulnerability-stress conditions both increased blame . We found no evidence for vulnerability-stress explanations as a mean to reduce stigma . We propose further research to identify more effective ways to tackle stigma 
    Output:
    
More innovative and method ologically sound studies are needed to provide an empirical basis for evidence -based interventions aim ed at reducing misconceptions about mental disorders and improve attitudes towards those afflicted