Too sick, not sick enough? Effects of treatment type and timing on depression stigma.

A case vignette survey design was used to explore effects of treatment timing (early, delayed, or untreated) and depression treatment type (pharmacological or psychological) on components of depression stigma. The survey was distributed to two samples, 116 undergraduates (UGs) and 301 participants from the online service Amazon Mechanical Turk. As expected, extended untreated depression was associated with greater social distance and negative character evaluation than treated depression, and early treatment was associated with higher illness invalidity stigma (both samples) and illness responsibility stigma (UG sample only). Interaction effects suggested that pharmacotherapy, in comparison with psychotherapy, was more sensitive to the effects of treatment timing on stigma. Taken together, the pattern of results suggests that separate facets of stigma are associated with early depression treatment and prolonged untreated depression. Evidence for separate stigmatization of early treatment and extended illness holds important implications for antistigma campaigns.