Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

LIVE: Thursday 27th June 2024, 18:00-19:30 (CEST)
Join our expert panel to discover why you need to understand the drivers of non-adherence in your patients, and how you can optimize medication adherence in your clinics to drastically improve patient outcomes.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
BMC Psychiatry
Published in: BMC Psychiatry 1/2019

Open Access 01-12-2019 | Mood Disorders | Research article

Effects of stigmatizing media coverage on stigma measures, self-esteem, and affectivity in persons with depression – an experimental controlled trial

Authors: Nele Cornelia Goepfert, Steffen Conrad von Heydendorff, Harald Dreßing, Josef Bailer

Published in: BMC Psychiatry | Issue 1/2019

Login to get access

Abstract

Background

Stigmatization of people with mental illness is still a significant problem even in Western society. Media is an important vector for public messaging that may lead to stigma (and potentially counteract it). There is an ongoing debate about the impact of news with potentially stigmatizing content on people with depression. This experimental study aimed at investigating the direct effects media reporting could have on people with depression, namely, higher levels of stigma attitudes and negative affect, as well as lower levels of self-esteem and positive affect.

Methods

Experimental study; target sample size n = 180 patients; eligibility criteria: clinical diagnosis of depressive episode or dysthymia, aged 18–70 years, sufficient cognitive abilities and German language skills; exclusion criteria: acute psychotic, manic or hypomanic episode, addiction symptoms, or suicidal ideation; parallel assignment to one of three arms (each n = 60): watching a short film about a negative event relating to depression (experimental group), about a negative event without relation to depression (control group 1), or about a neutral event relating to depression (control group 2); primary outcomes: degrees of stigma attitudes (stereotype awareness, stereotype agreement, self-concurrence, and self-stigmatization); secondary outcomes: degrees of self-esteem, positive and negative affect; statistical analyses: general linear models with repeated-measures; one-way ANOVAs of the change in scores, followed by Bonferroni-adjusted pairwise comparisons; IBM SPSS Statistics 24.0.

Results

Significant group × time interactions in stereotype agreement (medium effect: η = 0.10) and negative affect (large effect: η = 0.26); the level of stereotype agreement increased significantly more in the experimental group than in control groups 1 and 2. The level of negative affect increased significantly more in the experimental group and in control group 1 than in control group 2. All other interaction effects were non-significant.

Conclusion

The present study allows statements about the direct effects of potentially stigmatizing media reporting on carriers of the stigmatized attribute, i.e., depression: Even single film presentations of familiar events that contain potentially stigmatizing content have an impact on stereotype agreement and negative affect. The impact of long-term exposure and change in other stigma-measures require a deeper understanding of stigma-processes. Potential explanations and implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Trial registration

Deutsche Register Klinischer Studien, Trial registration: DRKS00011855. Registered 23 June 2017, retrospectively registered; for details see Additional file 1.
Appendix
Available only for authorised users
Footnotes
1
Baseline measurements were entered blockwise as independent variables: socio-demographics in step 1 (age, gender, level of education), all variables of relevance in step 2 (PHQ, SSMIS-Subscales, SSDS-D-Subscales, PANAS), and dummy coding for the 3 experimental conditions (i.e., EG = 1, 0, 0; CG1 = 0, 1, 0; CG2 = 0, 0, 1) in step 3.
 
Literature
1.
Angermeyer MC, Matschinger H, Schomerus G. Attitudes towards psychiatric treatment and people with mental illness: changes over two decades. Br J Psychiatry. 2013:1–6.
2.
Goffman E. Stigma: notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. London: Penguin Books; 1963.
3.
Stout PA, Villegas J, Jennings NA. Images of mental illness in the media: identifying gaps in the research. Schizophr Bull. 2004;30(3):543–61.CrossRef
4.
Stuart H. Media portrayal of mental illness and its treatments. CNS Drugs. 2006;20(2):99–106.CrossRef
5.
Jorm AF, Reavley NJ. Public belief that mentally ill people are violent: is the USA exporting stigma to the rest of the world? Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 2014;48(3):213–5.CrossRef
6.
Scherr S. Psychische Krankheiten in der Gesellschaft und in den Medien. In: Rossmann C, Hastall MR, editors. Handbuch Gesundheitskommunikation: Kommunikationswissenschaftliche Perspektivened. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden; 2016. p. 1–12.
7.
Scherr S. Depression - Medien - Suizid : Zur empirischen Relevanz von Depressionen und Medien für die Suizidalität, 1. Aufl. 2016 ed. Wiesbaden: Springer VS; 2016.
8.
Scherr S. Gesundheit in den Medien und die Bedeutung von Medieninhalten für die Gesundheit. In: Hurrelmann K, Baumann E, editors. Handbuch Gesundheitskommunikationed. Bern: Huber; 2014. p. 239–52.
9.
Aragonès E, López-Muntaner J, Ceruelo S, Basora J. Reinforcing stigmatization: coverage of mental illness in Spanish newspapers. J Health Commun. 2014;19(11):1248–58.CrossRef
10.
Corrigan PW, Kleinlein P. The impact of mental illness stigma. In: Corrigan PW, editor. On the stigma of mental illness: practical strategies for research and social change. 1st ed. Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association; 2005. p. 11–44.CrossRef
11.
Conrad von Heydendorff S, Meyer-Lindenberg A, Dressing H. Stigmatization of mentally ill patients by media coverage of Germanwings disaster. Int J Soc Psychiatry. 2016;62(8):749–50.CrossRef
12.
13.
Bavendamm U. Fatalismus ist nicht angebracht. Süddeutsche Zeitung. 2015;93:15.
14.
Corrigan PW, Powell KJ, Michaels PJ. The effects of news stories on the stigma of mental illness. J Nerv Ment Dis. 2013;201(3):179–82.CrossRef
15.
Chan G, Yanos PT. Media depictions and the priming of mental illness stigma. Stigma and Health. 2017:1–17.
16.
Angermeyer MC, Matschinger H. The effect of violent attacks by schizophrenic persons on the attitude of the public towards the mentally ill. Soc Sci Med. 1996;43(12):1721–8.CrossRef
17.
Ovd K, Mnich E, Angermeyer MC, Kofahl C, Makowski A. Changes in depression stigma after the Germanwings crash—findings from German population surveys. J Affect Disord. 2015;186:261–5.CrossRef
18.
Corrigan PW, Watson AC. The paradox of self-stigma and mental illness. Clin Psychol Sci Pract. 2002;9(1):35–53.CrossRef
19.
Corrigan PW, Rafacz J, Rüsch N. Examining a progressive model of self-stigma and its impact on people with serious mental illness. Psychiatry Res. 2011;189(3):339–43.CrossRef
20.
Cruwys T, Gunaseelan S. "Depression is who I am": mental illness identity, stigma and wellbeing. J Affect Disord. 2016;189:36–42.CrossRef
21.
Coppens E, Van Audenhove C, Scheerder G, Arensman E, Coffey C, Costa S, Koburger N, Gottlebe K, Gusmão R, O’Connor R, et al. Public attitudes toward depression and help-seeking in four European countries baseline survey prior to the OSPI-Europe intervention. J Affect Disord. 2013;150(2):320–9.CrossRef
22.
Picco L, Pang S, Lau YW, Jeyagurunathan A, Satghare P, Abdin E, Vaingankar JA, Lim S, Poh CL, Chong SA, et al. Internalized stigma among psychiatric outpatients: associations with quality of life, functioning, hope and self-esteem. Psychiatry Res. 2016;246:500–6.CrossRef
23.
Hasson-Ohayon I, Mashiach–Eizenberg M, Lysaker PH, Roe D. Self-clarity and different clusters of insight and self-stigma in mental illness. Psychiatry Res. 2016;240:308–13.CrossRef
24.
Campo-Arias A, Herazo E. The stigma-discrimination complex associated with mental disorder as a risk factor for suicide. Rev Colomb Psiquiatr. 2015;44(4):243–50.CrossRef
25.
Corrigan PW, Watson AC, Barr L. The self–stigma of mental illness: implications for self–esteem and self–efficacy. J Soc Clin Psychol. 2006;25(8):875–84.CrossRef
26.
Schiel S. Prädiktion des Erfolges der Dialektisch-Behavioralen Therapie bei Frauen mit Borderlinepersönlichkeitsstörung unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von Scham und Selbst-Stigmatisierung; 2005.
27.
Watson AC, Corrigan P, Larson JE, Sells M. Self-stigma in people with mental illness. Schizophr Bull. 2007;33(6):1312–8.CrossRef
28.
Rosenberg M. The measurement of self-esteem. Society and the adolescent self image, vol. 297; 1965. p. V307.CrossRef
29.
Collani GV, Herzberg PY. Eine revidierte Fassung der deutschsprachigen Skala zum Selbstwertgefühl von Rosenberg. Zeitschrift für Differentielle und Diagnostische Psychologie. 2003;24(1):3–7.CrossRef
30.
Göpfert N, Lehr K, Zillich L, SCv H, Dreßing H, Bailer J. Validierung einer deutschen, adaptierten Fassung der Self-Stigma of Depression Scale (SSDS) zur Messung von Selbststigmatisierung bei Personen mit Depression (SSDS-D). Psychother Psychosom Med Psychol. in press.
31.
Barney LJ, Griffiths KM, Christensen H, Jorm AF. The self-stigma of Depression scale (SSDS): development and psychometric evaluation of a new instrument. Int J Methods Psychiatr Res. 2010;19(4):243–54.CrossRef
32.
Krohne HW, Egloff B, Kohlmann C-W, Tausch A. Untersuchungen mit einer deutschen Version der" Positive and Negative Affect Schedule"(PANAS). Diagnostica. 1996;42:139–56.
33.
Rüsch N, Angermeyer MC, Corrigan PW. Das Stigma psychischer Erkrankung: Konzepte, Formen und Folgen. Psychiatr Prax. 2005;32:221–32.CrossRef
34.
Löwe B, Spitzer R, Zipfel S, Herzog W, PHQ-D. Gesundheitsfragebogen für Patienten, vol. 2; 2002.
35.
Kroenke K, Spitzer RL, Williams JBW. The PHQ-9. J Gen Intern Med. 2001;16(9):606–13.CrossRef
36.
Livingston JD, Boyd JE. Correlates and consequences of internalized stigma for people living with mental illness: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Soc Sci Med. 2010;71(12):2150–61.CrossRef
37.
Cohen J. Statistical power analvsis for the behavioral sciences: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; 1988.
38.
Weltgesundheitsorganisation. Internationale Klassifikation psychischer Störungen. ICD-10 Kapitel V (F) Klnisch-diagnostische Leitlinien. Bern: Hogrefe AG; 2015.
39.
Kohls E, Coppens E, Hug J, Wittevrongel E, Van Audenhove C, Koburger N, Arensman E, Székely A, Gusmão R, Hegerl U. Public attitudes toward depression and help-seeking: impact of the OSPI-Europe depression awareness campaign in four European regions. J Affect Disord. 2017;217:252–9.CrossRef
40.
Scherr S, Reinemann C. Belief in a Werther effect: third-person effects in the perceptions of suicide risk for others and the moderating role of Depression. Suicide Life Threat Behav. 2011;41(6):624–34.CrossRef
41.
Wang K, Weiss NH, Pachankis JE, Link BG. Emotional clarity as a buffer in the association between perceived mental illness stigma and suicide risk. Stigma and Health. 2016;1(4):252–62.CrossRef
42.
Rüsch N, Corrigan PW, Powell K, Rajah A, Olschewski M, Wilkniss S, Batia K. A stress-coping model of mental illness stigma: II. Emotional stress responses, coping behavior and outcome. Schizophr Res. 2009;110(1):65–71.CrossRef
43.
Pendry L. In: Jonas K, Stroebe W, MRC H, editors. Soziale Kognition. Springer-Verlag: Sozialpsychologie - Eine Einführunged Berlin Heidelberg; 2007. p. 111–45.
44.
Clement S, Schauman O, Graham T, Maggioni F, Evans-Lacko S, Bezborodovs N, Morgan C, Rüsch N, Brown JSL, Thornicroft G. What is the impact of mental health-related stigma on help-seeking? A systematic review of quantitative and qualitative studies. Psychol Med. 2014;45(1):11–27.CrossRef
45.
Till B, Wild TA, Arendt F, Scherr S, Niederkrotenthaler T. Associations of tabloid newspaper use with endorsement of suicide myths, suicide-related knowledge, and stigmatizing attitudes toward suicidal individuals. Crisis. 2018;39(6):428–37.CrossRef
46.
Scherr S. Traditional media use and depression in the general population: evidence for a non-linear relationship. Curr Psychol. 2018.
47.
Bartsch A, Oliver MB, Nitsch C, Scherr S. Inspired by the Paralympics: effects of empathy on audience interest in Para-sports and on the Destigmatization of persons with disabilities. Commun Res. 2018;45(4):525–53.CrossRef
48.
FAIR MEDIA. Für die Menschen, gegen Ausgrenzung. In: Aktionsbündnis Seelische Gesundheit. vol. 2019; 2019.
Metadata
Title
Effects of stigmatizing media coverage on stigma measures, self-esteem, and affectivity in persons with depression – an experimental controlled trial
Authors
Nele Cornelia Goepfert
Steffen Conrad von Heydendorff
Harald Dreßing
Josef Bailer
Publication date
01-12-2019
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Psychiatry / Issue 1/2019
Electronic ISSN: 1471-244X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-019-2123-6

Other articles of this Issue 1/2019

BMC Psychiatry 1/2019 Go to the issue

Research article

Analysis of the emotional experiences of Japanese Alcoholics Anonymous members striving for sobriety

Study protocol

The GET READY relapse prevention programme for anxiety and depression: a mixed-methods study protocol

Research article

Psychiatric symptoms and risk factors in adults born preterm with very low birthweight or born small for gestational age at term

Research article

Spanish validation of the self-evaluation of negative symptoms scale SNS in an adolescent population

Research article

Psychological interventions for managing postpartum psychosis: a qualitative analysis of women’s and family members’ experiences and preferences

Research article

The pitfall of empathic concern with chronic fatigue after a disaster in young adults