Lay beliefs about causes of depression

Assessing lay beliefs about causes of depressive behaviour and analysing the influence of labelling and demographic factors on causal attributions.

In Switzerland we conducted a representative telephone survey with 873 interviewees. A vignette depicting a man with depression satisfying the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)-III-R criteria was presented. Content analysis of up to three answers about assumed causes was conducted.

For more than half the respondents (56.6%) difficulties within the family or the partnership are causal for depression. Occupational stress is the second most-mentioned cause (32.7%), whereas unspecified further stress is in third place (19.9%). Traumatic events (17.9%), depressive disorder (14.1%) and further unspecified illnesses (11.6%) follow. Few correlations were found between causal attributions, labelling and demographic factors.

The respective causal attributions are mainly independent of demographic factors, thus generalizable for the population. The attributions are shaped primarily by psychosocial ideas about aetiology. Nevertheless, one-third of the interviewees holds biological or disease-related beliefs about causes of depression. The respective illness models cannot be neglected in the therapeutic relationship.