Reducing public stigma toward bipolar disorder: I. Interventions and outcomes

Area of Science:

• Mental Health Research
• Psychological Interventions
• Stigma Reduction Strategies

Background:

• Public stigma towards bipolar disorder (BD) negatively impacts treatment seeking and quality of life.
• Existing anti-stigma interventions rarely target BD or use ecologically valid measures.
• There's a need for interventions that address different stigma components beyond explicit self-report.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the efficacy of a novel loving-kindness meditation (LKM) intervention compared to an education-contact (EC) intervention and a control group.
• To assess the impact of these interventions on explicit and implicit stigma towards bipolar disorder.
• To examine changes in affective stigma and behavioral intentions towards individuals with BD.

Main Methods:

• 376 undergraduate students were randomly assigned to LKM, EC, or a control condition.
• Stigma measures included explicit (cognitive, affective, behavioral intentions) and implicit stigma.
• Interventions were tested on attitudes towards a hypothetical person with BD and a confederate with BD.

Main Results:

• Education-contact (EC) reduced some cognitive and affective stigma towards a hypothetical person with BD compared to the control.
• Both EC and LKM improved behavioral intentions towards a confederate with BD compared to the control.
• No significant differences were found in affective stigma towards the confederate or implicit stigma across conditions.

Conclusions:

• Brief EC and LKM interventions show potential for reducing stigma, particularly behavioral intentions.
• Novel approaches may be necessary to effectively reduce implicit stigma and other components of BD stigma.
• This feasibility study highlights the need for further investigation into long-term effects and pre-intervention stigma levels.