Chemical imbalance and etiological beliefs about depression among college students

Abstract

Etiological beliefs of depression have differing impacts on motivation, hope, and treatment expectations. However, it is unclear where people are exposed to these beliefs. Objective: This study examined beliefs about depression and their relations to symptoms, attitudes about depression, and treatment preferences. Participants: 426 undergraduates attending a large midwestern university. Methods: Participants completed an online survey asking about causes of depression, if and where they had heard about the “chemical imbalance” explanation of depression, attitudes about depression, as well as measures of their symptoms, treatment history, and hypothetical treatment preferences. Results: Sixty-two percent of the sample had heard of the chemical imbalance explanation, most commonly from the classroom. Biochemical beliefs about depression were most strongly endorsed among participants with a family history of depression and who had had personal experience with treatment. The chemical imbalance belief was uniquely related to dysfunctional beliefs about depression. Etiological beliefs were largely unrelated to treatment preferences. Conclusion: College students are exposed to models of mental health that may not be ideal for treatment and recovery.

Keywords:

• Chemical imbalance
• college student mental health
• depression
• etiological beliefs
• genetic essentialism

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements of the United States of America and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of Michigan State University.

Notes

1 N = 87 indicated “Unsure” and were excluded from family history analyses.

2 Levene’s test for equality of variances was significant for this test of genetic beliefs, F = 4.504, p = .034, so we report statistics with equal variances not assumed. Results are identical when equal variances are assumed.

3 For all MANOVAs, controlling for PHQ-8 scores did not substantially impact results; results are reported without covariates.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.