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      Stigmatising Attitudes Towards Persons with Mental Illness: A Survey of Medical Students and Interns from Southern Nigeria

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          Abstract

          Stigmatising attitudes towards persons with mental illness are commonly reported among health professionals. Familiarity with mental illness has been reported to improve these attitudes. Very few studies have compared future medical doctors’ attitudes toward types of mental illness, substance use disorders and physical illness. A cross-sectional survey of 5th and 6th year medical students as well as recently graduated medical doctors was conducted in April 2011. The 12-item level of contact report and the Attitude towards Mental Illness Questionnaire were administered. Participants endorsed stigmatising attitudes towards mental illness; with attitudes more adverse for schizophrenia compared to depression. Stigmatising attitudes were similarly endorsed for substance use disorders. Paradoxically, attitudes towards HIV/AIDS were positive and similar to diabetes mellitus. Increasing familiarity with mental illness was weakly associated with better attitudes towards depression and schizophrenia. Stigmatising attitudes towards depression and schizophrenia are common among future doctors. Efforts to combat stigma are urgently needed and should be promoted among medical students and recent medical graduates.

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          Mental health treatment seeking among older adults with depression: the impact of stigma and race.

          Kyaien O Conner, Valire Copeland, Nancy Grote … (2010)
          Stigma associated with mental illness continues to be a significant barrier to help seeking, leading to negative attitudes about mental health treatment and deterring individuals who need services from seeking care. This study examined the impact of public stigma (negative attitudes held by the public) and internalized stigma (negative attitudes held by stigmatized individuals about themselves) on racial differences in treatment-seeking attitudes and behaviors among older adults with depression. Random digit dialing was utilized to identify a representative sample of 248 African American and white older adults (older than 60 years) with depression (symptoms assessed by the Patient Health Questionnaire-9). Telephone-based surveys were conducted to assess their treatment-seeking attitudes and behaviors and the factors that impacted these behaviors. Depressed older adult participants endorsed a high level of public stigma and were not likely to be currently engaged in or did they intend to seek mental health treatment. Results also suggested that African American older adults were more likely to internalize stigma and endorsed less positive attitudes toward seeking mental health treatment than their white counterparts. Multiple regression analysis indicated that internalized stigma partially mediated the relationship between race and attitudes toward treatment. Stigma associated with having a mental illness has a negative influence on attitudes and intentions toward seeking mental health services among older adults with depression, particularly African American elders. Interventions to target internalized stigma are needed to help engage this population in psychosocial mental health treatments.
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            WPA guidance on how to combat stigmatization of psychiatry and psychiatrists.

            Heather Stuart, A. Tasman, Norman Sartorius … (2010)
            In 2009 the WPA President established a Task Force that was to examine available evidence about the stigmatization of psychiatry and psychiatrists and to make recommendations about action that national psychiatric societies and psychiatrists as professionals could do to reduce or prevent the stigmatization of their discipline as well as to prevent its nefarious consequences. This paper presents a summary of the Task Force's findings and recommendations. The Task Force reviewed the literature concerning the image of psychiatry and psychiatrists in the media and the opinions about psychiatry and psychiatrists of the general public, of students of medicine, of health professionals other than psychiatrists and of persons with mental illness and their families. It also reviewed the evidence about the interventions that have been undertaken to combat stigma and consequent discrimination and made a series of recommendations to the national psychiatric societies and to individual psychiatrists. The Task Force laid emphasis on the formulation of best practices of psychiatry and their application in health services and on the revision of curricula for the training of health personnel. It also recommended that national psychiatric societies establish links with other professional associations, with organizations of patients and their relatives and with the media in order to approach the problems of stigma on a broad front. The Task Force also underlined the role that psychiatrists can play in the prevention of stigmatization of psychiatry, stressing the need to develop a respectful relationship with patients, to strictly observe ethical rules in the practice of psychiatry and to maintain professional competence.
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              Health service staff's attitudes towards patients with mental illness.

              Miltos Livaditis, Valentini Bochtsou, Constantinos Bikos … (2009)
              Stereotypes and prejudices against patients with mental illness are widespread in many societies. The aim of the present study is to investigate such attitudes among the staff and medical students, including employees and trainees, in a general university hospital. Six hundred individuals (361 employees, 231 students) completed the following questionnaires: Level of Contact Report (LCR), Authoritarianism Scale (AS), and Opinion about Mental Illness (OMI), a scale yielding five factors (social discrimination, social restriction, social care, social integration, and aetiology). Multivariate linear regression models were applied in order to search for the simultaneous effect of many variables on the scores of OMI factors. An important part of the sample held negative attitudes especially concerning social discrimination and restriction of the patients. Women, older and less educated staff, nursing staff, and people scoring higher on authoritarianism were more prejudiced. Higher scores on familiarity were associated with less negative attitudes. The results indicate the need to develop sensitisation and training programs considering mental health topics among health service employees.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Journal ID (nlm-ta): Ment Illn
                Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Ment Illn
                Journal ID (publisher-id): MI
                Title: Mental Illness
                Publisher: PAGEPress Publications, Pavia, Italy
                ISSN (Print): 2036-7457
                ISSN (Electronic): 2036-7465
                Publication date (Electronic): 30 April 2012
                Publication date Collection: 26 July 2012
                Volume: 4
                Issue: 1
                Electronic Location Identifier: e8
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Department of Clinical Services, Federal Psychiatric Hospital , Benin City;
                [2 ]Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, Ambrose Alli University , Ekpoma, Nigeria
                Author notes
                Department of Clinical Services, Federal Psychiatric Hospital, P.M.B 1108, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. Tel: +234.8023715213 E-mail: bawojames@ 123456yahoo.com

                Contributions: BOJ, conceived the study and design, analysed the data and wrote substantial aspects of the manuscript; JOO, conceived the study, collected data, reviewed the data analysis and wrote and reviewed sections of the manuscript; EO, reviewed the drafts and final copy of the manuscript, collected data and contributed to the refinement of the research design and methodology.

                Conflict of interests: the authors report no conflicts of interests.

                Article
                DOI: 10.4081/mi.2012.e8
                PMC ID: 4253366
                PubMed ID: 25478110
                SO-VID: 017af8a2-2724-4e6f-a248-002bc0bf6d0f
                Copyright © ©Copyright B.O. James et al.
                License:

                This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

                History
                Date received : 30 September 2011
                Date revision received : 13 February 2012
                Date accepted : 21 March 2012
                Page count
                Figures: 0, Tables: 1, Equations: 0, References: 23, Pages: 3
                Categories
                Subject: Article

                Keywords: stigma,mental illness,medical students,doctors
                Data availability:
                Keywords: stigma, mental illness, medical students, doctors

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