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Attitudes toward psychiatry and psychiatric patients in medical students: Can real-world experiences reduce stigma?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2020

M. Pascucci ,
E. Stella ,
M. La Montagna ,
A. De Angelis ,
P. Parente ,
V. Di Nunzio ,
A. Ventriglio ,
A. Bellomo ,
L. Janiri  and
G. Pozzi
M. Pascucci*
Affiliation:
University of Foggia, Institute of Psychiatry, Foggia, Italy
E. Stella
Affiliation:
University of Foggia, Institute of Psychiatry, Foggia, Italy
M. La Montagna
Affiliation:
University of Foggia, Institute of Psychiatry, Foggia, Italy
A. De Angelis
Affiliation:
Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Department of Psychiatry, Rome, Italy
P. Parente
Affiliation:
Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Institute of Hygiene & Public Health, Rome, Italy
V. Di Nunzio
Affiliation:
University of Foggia, Institute of Psychiatry, Foggia, Italy
A. Ventriglio
Affiliation:
University of Foggia, Institute of Psychiatry, Foggia, Italy
A. Bellomo
Affiliation:
University of Foggia, Institute of Psychiatry, Foggia, Italy
L. Janiri
Affiliation:
Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Department of Psychiatry, Rome, Italy
G. Pozzi
Affiliation:
Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Department of Psychiatry, Rome, Italy
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

Stigma towards psychiatry and mental illness significantly worsens the quality of life of psychiatric patients. Negative prejudices in medical students make it difficult for future doctors to send patients to mental health services and promote an increased risk of premature death.

Aims

Our aim is to assess stigma towards mental illness and psychiatry in medical students, and to study the influence of real-world experiences, such as having visited a psychiatric ward, having personally met a psychiatric patient or having friends and/or family members who suffer from a mental illness.

Methods

One hundred and thirteen Italian medical students completed the following tests:

– Attitudes Towards Psychiatry (ATP-30);

– Community Attitudes Towards Mental Ill (CAMI);

– Perceived Discrimination Devaluation Scale (PDD);

– Baron-Cohen's Empathy Quotient (EQ).

Results

Having visited a psychiatric ward correlates with a better attitude towards psychiatry (P = 0.008), rather than towards the mentally ill. Having personally known someone with mental disorders correlates with less stigmatizing scores in CAMI: total score (P = 0.002), authoritarianism (P < 0.001), benevolence (P = 0.047) and social restriction (P = 0.001). Similar results emerged in those who have close relationships with a psychiatric patient. There is no statistical significance as to empathy.

Conclusions

The students who have visited a psychiatric ward have a less stigmatizing vision of psychiatry, while having personally known psychiatric patients favors a less stigmatizing attitude towards them. Those who have not had this experience, have a more hostile and intolerant vision of mental illness, and consider psychiatric patients as inferior subjects that require coercive attitudes and that would be better to avoid because socially dangerous.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Type
EW413
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 33 , Issue S1: Abstracts of the 24th European Congress of Psychiatry , March 2016 , pp. s218
Copyright
Copyright © European Psychiatric Association 2014
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