Stigmatization towards the mentally ill: Perceptions of psychiatrists,pre-clinical and post-clinical rotation medical students

Abstract

Background:

Stigma towards the mentally ill is a well-known phenomenon and it is not restricted to certain communities or countries. Stigma, be it self-stigma or public stigma, has a major influence in mental health care.

Aim:

The aim of this study was to determine whether stigmatizing attitudes towards the mentally ill differ according to the level of knowledge about psychiatric illnesses and whether the level of exposure towards the mentally ill plays a role in stigmatizing attitudes.

Method:

This study was carried out by assessing psychiatrists (n = 68), pre-clinical (n = 194) and post-clinical (n = 354) medical students’ attitudes towards the mentally ill using the Mental Illness: Clinicians’ Attitudes (MICA) scale. The scale is scored on a Likert scale with higher scores indicating higher levels of stigmatization.

Results:

Participants in the three groups had statistical significant different levels of stigma with a decline in scores as you are more exposed to psychiatry. Familiarity with mental illness was associated with less stigma. Participants who had friends or family members who suffered from mental illness or they themselves suffered from a mental illness had less stigma.

Conclusion:

More exposure to mental health–related issues are needed not only in communities but also in medical schools. Medical students need to be targeted for educational intervention because they are the future doctors who might pursue psychiatry as their field of choice. Stigma against psychiatry as a medical profession should also be addressed. If psychiatry is to be respected as a medical profession, mental illness–related stigma interventions need to be put in place to raise awareness about the negative impact of stigma.

Keywords

Stigma psychiatrists medical students mental illness

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Angermeyer

M. C.

Matschinger

Corrigan

P. W.

(2004). Familiarity with mental illness and social distance from people with schizophrenia and major depression: Testing a model using data from a representative population survey. Schizophrenia Research, 69, 175–182.

Arvaniti

Samakouri

Kalamara

Bochtsou

Bikos

Livaditis

(2009). Health service staff’s attitudes towards patients with mental illness. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 44, 658–665.

Save

Fidanoglu

(2006). Does stigma concerning mental disorders differ through medical education? Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 41, 63–67.

Bezuidenhout

(2016). Why South Africa is failing mental health patients and what can be done about it. The Conversation. Retreived from https://theconversation.com/why-south-africa-is-failing-mental-health-patients-and-what-can-be-done-about-it-66445

Buhrmann

M. V.

(1982). The Xhosa healers of Southern Africa. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 27, 163–173.

Byrne

(2000). Stigma of mental illness and ways of diminishing it. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 6, 65–72.

Corrigan

P. W.

(2000). Mental health stigma as social attribution: Implications for research methods and attitude change. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 7, 48–67.

Corrigan

P. W.

(2004). How stigma interferes with mental health care. American Psychologist, 59, 614–625.

Corrigan

P. W.

Powell

K. J.

Michaels

P. J.

(2014). Brief battery for measurement of stigmatizing versus affirming attitudes about mental illness. Psychiatry Research, 215, 466–470.

10.

Fernando

S. M.

Deane

F. P.

McLeod

H. J.

(2010). Sri Lankan doctors’ and medical undergraduates’ attitudes towards mental illness. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 45, 733–739.

11.

Gabbidon

Clement

van Nieuwenhuizen

Kassam

Brohan

Norman

Thornicroft

(2013). Mental illness: Clinicians’ attitudes (MICA) scale: Psychometric properties of a version for healthcare students and professionals. Psychiatry Research, 206, 81–87.

12.

Galletly

C. A.

Turnbull

Goldney

(2016). Medical student teaching in the private sector: An overlooked opportunity? Australasian Psychiatry, 24, 198–200.

13.

Girma

Möller-Leimkühler

A. M.

Müller

Dehning

Froeschl

Tesfaye

(2014). Public stigma against family members of people with mental illness: Findings from the Gilgel Gibe Field Research Center (GGFRC), Southwest Ethiopia. BMC International Health and Human Rights, 14, 2.

14.

Gowans

M. C.

Wright

B. J.

Brenneis

F. R.

Scott

I. M.

(2011). Which students will choose a career in psychiatry? Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 56, 605–613.

15.

Harper

B. L.

Roman

B. J.

(2017). The changing landscape of recruitment in psychiatry. Academic Psychiatry, 41, 221–225.

16.

Kassam

Glozier

Leese

Henderson

Thornicroft

(2010). Development and responsiveness of a scale to measure clinicians’ attitudes to people with mental illness (medical student version). Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 122, 153–161.

17.

Linden

Kavanagh

(2012). Attitudes of qualified vs. student mental health nurses towards an individual diagnosed with schizophrenia. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 68, 1359–1368.

18.

Link

B. G.

Phelan

J. C.

(2001). Conceptualizing stigma. Annual Review of Sociology, 27, 363–385.

19.

Link

B. G.

Yang

L. H.

Phelan

J. C.

Collins

P. Y.

(2004). Measuring mental illness stigma. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 30, 511–541.

20.

Loch

A. A.

Guarniero

F. B.

Lawson

F. L.

Hengartner

M. P.

Rössler

Gattaz

W. F.

Wang

Y.-P.

(2013). Stigma toward schizophrenia: Do all psychiatrists behave the same? Latent profile analysis of a national sample of psychiatrists in Brazil. BMC Psychiatry, 13, 92.

21.

Lyons

Janca

(2015). Impact of a psychiatry clerkship on stigma, attitudes towards psychiatry, and psychiatry as a career choice. BMC Medical Education, 15, 34.

22.

Mahendran

Lim

H. A.

Verma

Kua

E. H.

(2015). The impact of the educational environment on career choice and attitudes toward psychiatry. Medical Teacher, 37, 494–497.

23.

Mbanga

N. I.

Niehaus

D. J.

Mzamo

N. C.

Wessels

C. J.

Allen

Emsley

R. A.

Stein

D. J.

(2002). Attitudes towards and beliefs about schizophrenia in Xhosa families with affected probands. Curationis, 25, 69–73.

24.

Roberts

L. W.

Bandstra

B. S.

(2012). Adressing stigma to strenghten psychiatric education. Academic Psychiatry, 36, 347–350.

25.

Roth

Antony

M. M.

Kerr

K. L.

Downie

(2000). Attitudes toward mental illness in medical students: Does personal and professional experience with mental illness make a difference? Medical Education, 34, 234–236.

26.

Rüsch

Angermeyer

M. C.

Corrigan

P. W.

(2005). Mental illness stigma: Concepts, consequences, and initiatives to reduce stigma. European Psychiatry, 20, 529–539.

27.

Schulze

(2007). Stigma and mental health professionals: A review of the evidence on an intricate relationship. International Review of Psychiatry, 19, 137–155.

28.

Serafini

Pompili

Haghighat

Pucci

Pastina

Lester

& Girardi

(2011). Stigmatization of schizophrenia as perceived by nurses, medical doctors, medical students and patients. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 18, 576–585.

29.

Totic

Stojiljković

Pavlovic

Zaric

Zarkovic

Malic

& Maric

N. P.

(2012). Stigmatization of ‘psychiatric label’by medical and non-medical students. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 58, 455–462.

30.

Ukpong

D. I.

Abasiubong

(2010). Stigmatising attitudes towards the mentally ill: A survey in a Nigerian university teaching hospital. South African Journal of Psychiatry, 16, 56–60.

31.

Wang

Fick

Adair

Lai

(2007). Gender specific correlates of stigma toward depression in a Canadian general population sample. Journal of Affective Disorders, 103, 91–97.

32.

World Health Organization. (2017a). Depression and other common mental disorders: Global health estimates. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO.

33.

World Health Organization. (2017b). mhGAP intervention Guide for mental, neurological and substance use disorders in non-specialized health settings. Geneva, Switzerland: Author.

34.

World Health Organization (WHO)/Europe. (2008). Policies and practices for mental health in Europe: Meeting the challenges. Copenhagen, Denmark: WHO.