OBJECTIVETo investigate the differences in level of common knowledge toward common psychiatric disorders and means of therapy in general population, resulting from different education levels and living areas.

METHODSAll 4,614 persons over 15 years of age recruited from general population in Zhejiang Province via stratified randomly sampling, were classified by education levels as illiteracy, primary school level, high school level, and college level. Each group was thus divided into two categories according to the person's living areas, ie urban and rural area. The level of common knowledge about psychosis and means of therapy were measured by a questionnaire administered to all subjects.

RESULTSThe rate of knowledge of neurasthenic was the highest, reaching to 71.1%, then of knowledge of schizophrenia and depression, was 47.9% and 39.3% respectively, and the rate of knowledge of alcohol dependence, mania and obsessive-compulsive disorder was lower than 20%. The rate of knowledge of the 6 common psychiatric disorders was higher in people from urban area, than from rural areas. The rate of knowledge of common psychiatric disorders was increased correspondingly to the increase of the education level among the people residing at the same living area. The main means of therapy the people selected was western medicine and psychology, reaching at 24.0% and 34.8% respectively. There were significant differences among the people with different education levels but from the same living areas, and the people with lower education levels were likely to choose the therapy of western medicine, on the other hand, the people with higher education levels were tending to choose the therapy of psychology.

CONCLUSIONThe popularization of the knowledge and the education about mental health should be reinforced, as to improving the knowledge about mental health, choosing a correct means of therapy to the common psychiatric disorders and promoting the mental health status of the population.