Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39402888›Full record

ArticleAustralasian psychiatry : bulletin of Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists2025

Public awareness of mental illness: Mental health literacy or concept creep?

Nick Haslam, Jesse Sy Tse

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Australasian psychiatry : bulletin of Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Review
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Observational
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Nick HaslamMelbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-1913-2340
Jesse Sy TseMelbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Rising awareness of mental illness has increased the public's mental health literacy, with positive implications for help-seeking and destigmatization. We argue that it has also enlarged the public's concept of mental illness. People have become better at recognizing the presence of mental illness but may have become worse at recognizing its absence. This conceptual expansion fosters unwarranted self-diagnosis, the pathologization of ordinary distress, and unnecessary treatment. It is incumbent on mental health professionals to promote accurate knowledge of mental illness and push back against overly expansive concepts of it.

Indexed as

Health Knowledge, Attitudes, PracticeHealth LiteracyMental DisordersMental HealthHumansconcept creepmental health literacyoverdiagnosissocial stigma

Identifiers

PMID39402888
PMCPMC11804130

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.