College students' recommendations for dealing with anxiety disorders

Abstract

Despite the availability of efficacious treatments, most Americans afflicted with anxiety disorders will never seek treatment. Patients that do seek help report a lack of knowledge about anxiety disorders and treatment as primary reasons they failed to seek treatment sooner. Anxiety disorders frequently onset in late adolescent/early adulthood. However, there is little information on what young adults know about anxiety disorders. The current study sought to examine college students' recommendations for anxiety disorders. College students (N = 284) were presented with vignettes of individuals experiencing an anxiety disorder or depression and asked to suggest recommendations for these individuals. Rates of help-seeking recommendations varied between anxiety disorders, with the highest rates observed for panic disorder and the lowest rates for generalized anxiety disorder and social phobia. Findings suggest that recommendations to seek professional help for anxiety disorders are not universal even when the significant interference and distress associated with these symptoms are clearly conveyed.

Keywords::

• Mental health literacy
• anxiety disorders
• treatment-seeking

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Megan Shurtleff and Ashley Schleimer for their assistance with coding open-ended responses for the current study.

Notes

^1. Demographic information was not available for 17 participants. Proportions presented herein represent valid percentages for participants providing the information.