ArticleSAGE open medicine2018
Perceptions of mental illness etiology and treatment in Saudi Arabian healthcare students: A cross-sectional study.
Article in SAGE open medicine, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mental health literacy in Arab states of the Gulf Cooperation Council: A systematic review.PloS one · 2021Pooled it
- The Prevalence and Comorbidities of Self-Reported Mental Health Disorders Among Primary Healthcare Attendees in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Survey.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Mental health literacy among adolescents in Nigeria exposed to a school-based multidimensional intervention.Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry = Journal de l'Academie canadienne de psychiatrie de l'enfant et de l'adolescent · 2025Article
- Factors Influencing Help-seeking Behavior for Mental Health Among Distressed Young Adults: A Path Analysis Model.Indian journal of psychological medicine · 2025Article
- Exploring mental health stigma among Indonesian healthcare students towards individuals with mental illnesses: a qualitative study.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2024Article
- Perceptions of mental disorder causes, treatments, and prevention among the general population in Saudi Arabia.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Schizophrenia: jinn, magic or disease? Experiences of family caregivers of patients with schizophrenia in Baloch ethnicity.BMC psychiatry · 2023Article
- Mental illness stigma as a moderator in the relationship between religiosity and help-seeking attitudes among Muslims from 16 Arab countries.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Pattern, barriers, and predictors of mental health care utilization among Egyptian undergraduates: a cross-sectional multi-centre study.BMC psychiatry · 2023Article
- How does the British public understand mental health? A qualitative analysis of open-text responses.The International journal of social psychiatry · 2022Article
- Healthcare Professionals' Attitudes Toward Patients With Mental Illness: A Cross-Sectional Study in Qatar.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- Behind male Saudi nursing students' mental health facade: a husserlian phenomenological approach.BMC nursing · 2021Article
- Labeled As Mentally Ill: Community Perspective Toward Mental Illness in Al Ahsa, Saudi Arabia.Cureus · 2021Article
- Parental Support, Beliefs about Mental Illness, and Mental Help-Seeking among Young Adults in Saudi Arabia.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Discrepancies between patients' and pharmacists' perceptions of the role of community pharmacists as advisors on the use of pharmaceuticals in Japan: A comparison prior to and following revision of the Pharmacists' Act.SAGE open medicine · 2019Article
- Unraveling Mental Health Stigma: A Qualitative Study of Health Science Students' Perceptions Toward Patients With Mental Illness in the United Arab Emirates.Public health nursing (Boston, Mass.)Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesCultural beliefs often affect people's attitude toward mental illness and their help-seeking behavior. Belief in superstitious causes of mental illness can lead to seeking help from non-medical practitioners, which might hinder treatment. This study aimed to explore the perception of mental illness and help-seeking behavior among healthcare students.
methodsA cross-sectional study carried out on a sample of 400 randomly selected undergraduate health professional students in Riyadh. Data collection involved two self-administered questionnaires: the causes and treatment routes for a female vignette with psychosis and the General Health Questionnaire-28.
resultsThe mean age of participants was 20.9 years, and 68.2% were male. Although participants reported a lack of personal history of mental illness (81.9%), female participants were more likely to disclose psychological distress as measured by General Health Questionnaire-28 (67.6%). Mental illness (47.2%) was chosen as the main reason for the problem depicted by the female vignette. General Health Questionnaire-28 scores for "caseness" did not affect perception about psychosis versus non-caseness. Factor analysis produced four dimensions for causes of psychosis: "social," "psychobiological," "superstitious," and "socially undesirable"; and two treatment routes: "clinical" versus "social interventions." Male participants leaned toward social factors for the cause of psychosis and were more likely to endorse social interventions for treatment.
conclusionHealthcare students in Riyadh remained supportive of a biomedical approach toward the causation and treatment of mental illness. The use of religious practices as an adjunct was apparent. Students, especially females, were prone to experience more psychological distress.
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