9:47 AM
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She became world-famous as the saviour of countless lives and the inventor of modern nursing, but a new report suggests that Florence Nightingale might never have been able to transform hospitals if she had to combat today's stigma against mental illness.
By Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent
Last Updated: 3:48PM GMT 10 Feb 2009
The document, co-written by Alastair Campbell, the former Government spin doctor, also questions whether a modern politician could reach the top of their profession suffering from Winston Churchill's "black dog" of depression.
And it queries whether the ideas of other leading figures, including Charles Darwin, Marie Curie and Abraham Lincoln, would be ignored in today's society, which the report found was heavily prejudiced against people with mental health problems.
More than one in four people, 29 per cent, do not think that someone with a mental illness can hold down a responsible job, the study found, while 60 per cent of employers said that they would feel unable to employ someone suffering from mental health problems.
The report warns that achievements including the theory of evolution, the creation of modern nursing, developments in cancer treatment and the abolition of slavery may never have happened under modern ideas about mental health.
As well as Churchill, Curie and Lincoln both suffered from depression, while Darwin had extreme bouts of anxiety and agoraphobia and experts believe that Florence Nightingale suffered from bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression.
The report speculates that without Churchill, Britain could have made a compromise peace agreement in 1940, allowing a Nazi-dominated Europe and the loss of freedom and democracy.
It also warns that the "next Churchill" could be missed because of the modern demands on politicians.
Mr Campbell said: "I am not convinced that a modern politician who admitted to mental health problems would be able to get to the top.
"Churchill was by common consent Britain's greatest ever leader, and voted the greatest ever Briton, but I wonder whether his depression would have stopped him becoming Prime Minister in modern Britain.
"As I watch politicians and other public figures deal with the pressures of modern leadership, not least dealing with harsh 24 hour scrutiny, I sometimes wonder how these great historic figures would have fared had they been alive today.
"Churchill with his depressions, drinking and long lie-ins; Darwin with his severe anxiety that showed up in stomach disorders, crippling headaches, agoraphobia, trembling, palpitations of the heart, and mental torment which often left him in floods of tears.
"Would the media and public have been understanding about their conditions? – these statistics suggest otherwise."
The report, released today and co-written by historian Nigel Jones, is part of a campaign called Time to Change, organised by the mental health charities Mental Health Media, Mind and Rethink.
According to the report almost nine out of ten people with mental health problems have experienced stigma and discrimination, often by employers.
One in four Britons suffer from it at some point in their life, and Mr Campbell said that his own experience had shown how important the role of work could be to aid a patient's recovery.
He said: "When Tony Blair asked me to work for him in 1994, I told him about my breakdown and my drink problem. He said he wasn't worried. If a Prime Minister can have that attitude, then I think it is about time the six out of ten who say they wouldn't consider taking on someone with a history of mental illness join the four out of ten who say they would."
