Backgound: In developing countries, little is known about public recognition and beliefs about treatment of severe mental disorders, both emergent key elements in reducing stigma and the gap of treatment of such patients. It has been proposed that they may be related to gender and perception of patient’s aggressiveness and/or dangerousness.

Aims: To assess mental illness recognition and beliefs about treatment of schizophrenia, and to determine their relationship with perception of patient’s aggressiveness/dangerousness and gender of the perceiver in a community sample of Mexico City.

Methods: A convenience sample of 1038 subjects responded to a questionnaire that assesses all variables after reading a vignette of a patient with paranoid schizophrenia.

Results: Women were 1.88 times more likely to recognize the presence of mental illness and considered psychiatric interventions as the most adequate treatment of symptoms. In contrast, non-psychiatric interventions were more often considered by men (64.7%). Responders who recognize mental illness were more likely to perceive the patient as dangerous, which was related to the suggestion of more restrictive interventions.

Conclusions: It is necessary to direct special efforts to increase mental health literacy among men. The general public needs objective information about aggression and dangerousness in anti-stigma campaigns among developing countries similar to Mexico.