Seeking Psychiatric Attention Among University Students with Mental Health Problems: the Influence of Disease Perception

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Seeking Psychiatric Attention Among University Students with Mental Health Problems: the Influence of Disease Perception Ingrid Vargas-Huicochea 1,2 & Asunción Álvarez-del-Río 1 & Ana Carolina Rodríguez-Machain 1 & Elsa Liliana Aguirre-Benítez 3 & Nora Kelsall 4

# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020

Abstract

In addition to many other consequences, in university students, the deterioration in academic performance and the potential development of risky behaviours (including suicide and addictions) are related to untreated mental illness. Unfortunately, compared with the general population, this group seeks less attention in mental health. This study sought to analyse the components of the Model of Beliefs in Health and its relationship with the search for specialised care in a group of university students with mental health problems. This research was a qualitative study in which focused interviews were conducted with twenty-four university students. Among participants, mental illness was defined as a severe condition that

* Ingrid Vargas-Huicochea [email protected] Asunción Álvarez-del-Río [email protected] Ana Carolina Rodríguez-Machain [email protected] Elsa Liliana Aguirre-Benítez [email protected] Nora Kelsall [email protected]

1

Departamento de Psiquiatría y Salud Mental, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico

2

Oficina 6 de la Coordinación de Investigación del Departamento de Psiquiatría y Salud Mental, Edificio F de la Facultad de Medicina de la UNAM, Circuito interior y Cerro del Agua s/n, Ciudad Universitaria, Colonia Copilco Universidad, Coyoacán, 04510 Mexico City, Mexico

3

Departamento de Embriología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico

4

Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York City, NY, USA

International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction

they did not identify in themselves. Perceptions of mental illness were important in seeking attention; however, it was not enough for participants to have a theoretical knowledge of psychopathology. Added to theory, they needed be able to contextualise and personalise those skills to ensure the maintenance of treatments. Keywords Perception of disease . Mental illness . Care seeking behaviour . University students The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that one in four people is affected by some psychopathology throughout their lives, and that in Latin America about 400 million individuals have at least one such disorder (World Health Organization 2001). Such pathologies like major depression, alcohol use disorders, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, and migraine are among the twenty leading causes of disability worldwide (Agarwal et al. 2004). In Mexico, the National Survey of Psychiatric Epidemiology (Medina-Mora et al. 2003) reports that 28.6% of the surveyed population presented some mental disorder throughout their lives, the mos