Indiana Consortium For Mental Health
Services Research
Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana

Home Contacts Faculty Publications Core Projects Intensive Weekend Workshops Newsletters  

Abstract

Reprint # 67: American Attitudes Toward and Willingness to Use Psychiatric Medications

Thomas W. Croghan, M.D., Molly Tomlin, M.S., Bernice A. Pescosolido, Ph.D.,
Jason Schnittker, Ph.D., Jack Martin, Ph.D., Keri Lubell, Ph.D., and Ralph Swindle, Ph.D.

The purpose of this study is to use the 1998 GSS data to address four important questions for mental health care and mental health policy. First, how do Americans assess the effectiveness of and problems with psychiatric medications? Second, how likely and under what conditions do Americans report a
willingness to use medications? Third, how is willingness influenced by perceived efficacy? Fourth, how is this relationship modified by concerns about psychiatric medications, sociodemographic and socioeconornic characteristics, personal health-related factors and experiences, and evaluations of medical system providers? These questions set the larger context in which the public responds to mental health problems, weighs individual costs and benefits of seeking care, and creates the social influence pushing people to or away from formal treatment (Pescosolido, 1991; Pescosolido and Boyer, 1999).