Mental health literacy in Japanese cancer patients: ability to recognize depression and preferences of treatments—comparison with Japanese lay public

BACKGROUND: Insufficient knowledge about mental illness and its treatment has been shown to constitute a major barrier to its adequate care for mental illness in the lay public (LP). We therefore examined Japanese cancer patients' (CP) ability to recognize depression and their preferences of its treatments. PARTICIPANTS AND METHOD: One hundred lung CP and 300 LP were selected at random to participate in the study. Structured interviews using a vignette of a person with both cancer and depression were conducted with CP, and those using a vignette of a person with depression were carried out with LP, respectively. RESULTS: Only 11% of CP recognized the presence of depression in the vignette, while 25% of LP did (p<0.001). There were few significant differences in the preference for standard psychiatric treatments between CP and LP: standard treatments such as antidepressants (CP: 39%, LP: 36%) were less often rated as helpful, whereas non-standard treatments such as physical activity (CP: 85%, LP: 66%) were most often rated as helpful. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicated that cancer patients' knowledge about mental illness and its treatment were insufficient. Psychological education may reduce patient-related barriers to seek and to utilize optimal mental health care in cancer patients.