Psychiatric literacy and the personality disorders.

BACKGROUND: This study was concerned with investigating the mental health literacy of lay people in regard to the personality disorders.

METHOD: 223 participants responded to a questionnaire entitled 'eccentric people' which contained vignettes of 10 personality disorders which they rated as well as labelled.

RESULTS: Lay people recognize people with personality disorders as being unhappy, unsuccessful at work and as having poor personal relationships, but do not associate these problems with psychological causes. Rates of correct labelling were under 7% for 7/10 personality disorders. Cluster A (apart from paranoid) was commonly labelled as depression or as an autism spectrum disorder. Clusters B and C (apart from obsessive-compulsive) were commonly labelled as 'low self-esteem'. History of psychological education and illness were positively correlated with correct recognition of 70 and 60% of the personality disorders, respectively.

CONCLUSION: The mental health literacy of lay people in regard to the personality disorders is low. This raises concerns for health-seeking behaviour and diagnosis, as well as stigma and social neglect of people living with personality disorders. The question of cultural influences on the manifestation, diagnosis and recognition of mental illnesses, and the personality disorders in particular, is discussed.