Clinical trial NCT03656770: Measuring Beliefs and Norms About Persons With Mental Illness
Official title: Measuring Beliefs and Norms About Persons With Mental Illness in Rural Uganda: A Randomized Survey Experiment
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Mental Illness
Schizophrenia
Bipolar Disorder
Depression
Lead sponsor: Massachusetts General Hospital
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2018-09-04
Enrollment: 1782
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: OTHER

Brief summary: Survey experiment to estimate drivers of mental illness stigma

Detailed 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.

Eligibility criteria: 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)

Primary outcomes:
measure: Social Distance
timeFrame: 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)
measure: Perceived Norms about Social Distance
timeFrame: 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)
measure: Negative Attitudes (Attribution)
timeFrame: 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)
measure: Perceived Norms about Negative Attitudes (Attribution)
timeFrame: 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)
measure: Negative Attitudes (Shame)
timeFrame: 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)
measure: Perceived Norms about Negative Attitudes (Shame)
timeFrame: 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)
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Mbarara
country: Uganda
facility: Mbarara University of Science and Technology
Study officials:
affiliation: Massachusetts General Hospital
name: Alexander C Tsai, MD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Rasmussen JD, Kakuhikire B, Baguma C, Ashaba S, Cooper-Vince CE, Perkins JM, Bangsberg DR, Tsai AC. Portrayals of mental illness, treatment, and relapse and their effects on the stigma of mental illness: Population-based, randomized survey experiment in rural Uganda. PLoS Med. 2019 Sep 20;16(9):e1002908. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002908. eCollection 2019 Sep.