PUBLIC-OPINION ON PSYCHOTROPIC-DRUGS - AN ANALYSIS OF THE FACTORS INFLUENCING ACCEPTANCE OR REJECTION

Widespread negative attitudes and irrational beliefs about psychotropi c drugs held by the public affect patients' treatment compliance. This study was an attempt to identify factors influencing people's accepta nce or rejection of psychotropic drugs. An opinion poll was taken by a representative group of 2,176 adults in Germany. In addition to their attitudes toward psychotropic and cardiac drugs and their ratings of perceived risks and benefits, they were also asked about their drug kn owledge, their fear of losing self-control, and their fundamental poli tical values. Our results show that even for the treatment of severe m ental disease, psychotropic drugs generally are not well accepted comp ared to cardiac drugs. Psychotropic drugs are believed to cause signif icantly more severe side effects and provoke more fear of losing contr ol compared with cardiac drugs. Knowledge about psychotropic drugs and experiences with patients suffering from mental disorders are rather limited. Therefore, other sources of information such as negatively ta inted reports in the mass media have a significant impact on opinions about psychotropic drugs. Unexpectedly, negative media reports are eve n more important for the discrimination of distinct subtypes like ''ac ceptors'' and ''rejecters'' of psychotropic drugs than fundamental val ue orientation. It is recommended that educational and information mea sures must be enacted to achieve balanced presentation of psychotropic drugs, their effects, and their side effects in the mass media Improv ed communication and linguistic elements used in psychotherapeutic set tings should be integrated into biological psychiatry to improve under standing of the concepts of mental diseases and their treatment.