Commentary: Using Psychological Theory in Help-Seeking Research

In commenting on Henshaw and Freedman-Doan's (2009) article, we note that the topic is significant because treatment rates for mental health problems remain relatively low; we agree that theory-based research is needed to better understand and remediate this. We discuss dual-process models of health behavior, including heuristic-based as well as reasoned or rational information processing, and the role of informal networks and social comparison processes in symptom labeling and help seeking decisions. We suggest how social-cognitive theory may be useful for further research, and we note the low rates of help seeking for posttraumatic stress disorder as a particularly important problem for researchers and practitioners.