Measuring Beliefs and Norms About Persons With Mental Illness

Depression Clinical Trial

Official title:

Measuring Beliefs and Norms About Persons With Mental Illness in Rural Uganda: A Randomized Survey Experiment

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03656770
• Other study ID #: 2013P000395
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: December 13, 2016
• Est. completion date: June 8, 2018

Study information

• Verified date: August 2019
• Source: Massachusetts General Hospital
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Survey experiment to estimate drivers of mental illness stigma

Description:

Despite significant advances in scientific understanding of brain and substance use disorders accompanied by significant advances in treatment and improvements in prognosis, mental illness remains highly stigmatized throughout the world. Previous studies suggest that portraying mental illness as treatable can reduce negative attitudes toward persons with mental illness. This randomized controlled trial compares the effects of exposing study participants to vignettes portraying persons with untreated and symptomatic mental illness vs. treated mental illness with complete response vs. treated mental illness with relapse. It is hypothesized, based on prior work, that study participants exposed to vignettes depicting treated mental illness with completed response would have the greatest effect on reducing negative attitudes toward persons with mental illness, followed by treated mental illness with relapse and untreated and symptomatic mental illness.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 1782
• Est. completion date: June 8, 2018
• Est. primary completion date: June 8, 2018
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• all persons who considered Nyakabare Parish their primary place of residence and who were capable of providing consent

Exclusion Criteria:

• minors younger than 18 years of age, with the exception of emancipated minors

• persons who did not consider Nyakabare their primary place of residence, e.g., persons who happened to be visiting Nyakabare at the time of the survey or who owned a home in Nyakabare but spent most of their time outside the parish

• persons with whom research staff could not communicate, e.g., due to deafness, mutism, or aphasia

• persons with psychosis, neurological damage, acute intoxication, or other cognitive impairment (all of which were determined informally in the field by non-clinical research staff in consultation with a supervisor)

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Bipolar Disorder
• Depression
• Mental Disorders
• Mental Illness
• Schizophrenia

Intervention

Other:
• Survey questionnaire
Each version of the questionnaire portrays a young Ugandan woman with different profiles of illness severity, treatment, and treatment response.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Uganda	Mbarara University of Science and Technology	Mbarara

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Massachusetts General Hospital

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Uganda, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Social Distance	Willingness to have the woman portrayed in the vignette to marry into the study participant's family (single item culturally adapted instrument developed specifically for this study)	Immediate (assessed with respect to the study participant's beliefs at a single time point, which is the time at which the survey is administered)
Primary	Perceived Norms about Social Distance	Study participant's perception of the extent to which other people would be willing to have the woman portrayed in the vignette to marry into their families (single item culturally adapted instrument developed specifically for this study)	Immediate (assessed with respect to the study participant's beliefs at a single time point, which is the time at which the survey is administered)
Primary	Negative Attitudes (Attribution)	Personal belief that the symptoms of the woman portrayed in the vignette represent divine punishment (single item culturally adapted instrument developed specifically for this study)	Immediate (assessed with respect to the study participant's beliefs at a single time point, which is the time at which the survey is administered)
Primary	Perceived Norms about Negative Attitudes (Attribution)	Study participant's perception of the extent to which other people believe that the symptoms of the woman portrayed in the vignette represent divine punishment (single item culturally adapted instrument developed specifically for this study)	Immediate (assessed with respect to the study participant's beliefs at a single time point, which is the time at which the survey is administered)
Primary	Negative Attitudes (Shame)	Personal belief that the symptoms of the woman portrayed in the vignette bring shame upon her family	Immediate (assessed with respect to the study participant's beliefs at a single time point, which is the time at which the survey is administered)
Primary	Perceived Norms about Negative Attitudes (Shame)	Study participant's perception of the extent to which other people believe that the symptoms of the woman portrayed in the vignette bring shame upon her family (single item culturally adapted instrument developed specifically for this study)	Immediate (assessed with respect to the study participant's beliefs at a single time point, which is the time at which the survey is administered)