Figure 3: Perceived Causes by Disorder

Summary of National Survey Responses

When asked about probable causes for schizophrenia and depression in a vignette, focus group participants primarily cited psychosocial causes, but were more apt to link schizophrenia with biomedical causes, as seen in Figure 4. Bio-medical explanations for depression (genetics, brain disease, chemical imbalance) emerged more often among seniors but youth were more likely to cite biomedical causal factors for schizophrenia.

Figure 4: Proportion of Youth and Seniors Citing
Biomedical Explanations for Mental Disorders

Focus Group Results

In the second series of focus groups, participants identified a variety of potential causes for mental health problems, including environmental causes (early childhood experience, life stress, trauma) and genetics. None of the groups excluded genetics as a causal factor, although initial responses leaned toward psychosocial causes: seven of the ten groups initiated the discussion by listing a range of psychosocial causes and two groups did not mention genetic causes until prompted by the facilitator.