The stigmatization of psychiatric illness: What attitudes do medical students

Objective: To examine the attitude and opinions of doctors and medical students towards people with mental illness. Methodology: It is a cross-sectional survey carried out at Mayo Hospital and Fatima Memorial Hospital Lahore Pakistan, from May-July 2006. An anonymous Questionnaire based on previous research in this area was distributed among Family Physicians attending a CME programme, House Officers in four units of a Teaching Hospital, as welt as Medical Students. Results: Four hundred thirty four of 500 questionnaires were returned (86.8%). Schizophrenia, mania, alcohol and drug addiction produced more negative responses than other disorders and more than 60% respondents considered people with these illnesses as dangerous. For depression, anxiety, alcohol and drug addiction, around half the respondents considered that people were to blame for their problems or that they can pull themselves together. People with dementia and schizophrenia were considered to have the worst long term prognosis. Almost 98% of sample felt that psychological factors play an important rote in physical illnesses and 383(88.2%) agreed that management of emotional issues is a medical responsibility. Conclusion: This study showed that there were more stigmatizing views towards people with mental illness in our country's medical professionals than in other countries and even in comparison to general public in developed world. Comparison with other groups in our country would be useful in planning how to reduce the stigmatization of people with mental illness.