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Cited by 109Mental Health Treatment and AccessPsychology and Mental HealthPsychological Treatments and Disorders

The reluctance to seek treatment for neurotic disorders

Meltzer, H., Bebbington, P., Brugha, T., Farrell, M., Jenkins, R., Lewis, G.·2003·International Review of Psychiatry
DOI 10.1080/0954026021000046038
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Abstract

In previous papers from the National Survey of Psychiatric Morbidity in Great Britain, we have demonstrated that people with neurotic disorders rarely present their symptoms to primary care physicians and when they do, are quite likely not to be given treatment. In this paper, we examined survey respondents' reports of specific instances of reluctance to seek help in relation to sociodemographic, socio-economic and clinical attributes of our subjects. All people in the National Household Survey assessed as having a neurotic disorder were asked if at any time in the previous year they had avoided seeking appropriate treatment. Clinical measures included diagnosis, symptom severity, and deficits in carrying out tasks of daily living. Of nearly 1400 respondents, a quarter said they had not been to see a doctor at some time in the past year when they or their family felt they should have. The major determinant of this reluctance was symptom severity: more severe cases were more likely to report an episode of reluctance. Reasons included those related to ignorance of neurotic disorders and the effectiveness of treatment and to stigma. The attitudes detected in our subjects with neurotic disorder help to explain why people do not always seek effective help for their mental disorders, and are indicators of a worrying public education gap that will be hard to bridge.

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  • In the National Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, the most common response to how people deal with mental health problems was to try to cope with problems oneself.

    “Meltzer et al reported in the National Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, that the most common response to how people deal with mental health problems was to try to cope with problems oneself.32”

    From Can a self-referral system help improve access to psychological treatments? (2010) · cites this paper as [32]

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Authors
Meltzer, H., Bebbington, P., Brugha, T., Farrell, M., Jenkins, R., & Lewis, G.
Affiliations
  • Office for National Statistics (GB)
  • The Royal Free Hospital (GB)
  • University of Leicester (GB)
  • University of Bristol (GB)
ORCID
Venue
International Review of Psychiatry
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Published
2003-01
Volume
15
Issue
1-2
Pages
123-128
ISSN
  • 0954-0261 (ISSN-L)
  • 1369-1627
DOI
10.1080/0954026021000046038
OpenAlex
W2081723733
Cited by
109
References
10
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 8
FWCI
6.95
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • International Review of Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
  • Leicester Research Archive (University of Leicester) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychology and Mental Health
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychological Treatments and Disorders
Keywords
neurosis, help-seeking, symptom severity, stigma, primary care
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, Denial, Psychological, Female, United Kingdom, Humans, Male, Mass Screening, Mental Health Services, Middle Aged, Neurotic Disorders, Patient Acceptance of Health Care, Primary Health Care, Surveys and Questionnaires

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