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. 2014 Oct;65(10):1269-72.
doi: 10.1176/appi.ps.201400140.

Stigma, discrimination, treatment effectiveness, and policy: public views about drug addiction and mental illness

Colleen L Barry, Emma E McGinty, Bernice A Pescosolido, Howard H Goldman

Stigma, discrimination, treatment effectiveness, and policy: public views about drug addiction and mental illness

Colleen L Barry et al. Psychiatr Serv. 2014 Oct.

Abstract

Objective: Public attitudes about drug addiction and mental illness were compared.

Methods: A Web-based national survey (N=709) was conducted to compare attitudes about stigma, discrimination, treatment effectiveness, and policy support in regard to drug addiction and mental illness.

Results: Respondents held significantly more negative views toward persons with drug addiction. More respondents were unwilling to have a person with drug addiction marry into their family or work closely with them. Respondents were more willing to accept discriminatory practices against persons with drug addiction, more skeptical about the effectiveness of treatments, and more likely to oppose policies aimed at helping them.

Conclusions: Drug addiction is often treated as a subcategory of mental illness, and insurance plans group them together under the rubric of "behavioral health." Given starkly different public views about drug addiction and mental illness, advocates may need to adopt differing approaches to reducing stigma and advancing public policy.

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Figures

FIGURE
FIGURE
Public Attitudes about Persons with Drug Addiction (N=347) Mental Illness (N=362), 2013 7-pt Likert scales were collapsed to dichotomous stigma, discrimination, treatment effectiveness, and policy support measures. Pearson chi-square used to test whether attitudes differed based whether respondents viewed the drug addiction or mental illness version of each survey item. *p<.05; **p<.01; ***p<.001
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