Evaluation of physicians' stigma towards patients with mental disorders

In our study, it was aimed to evaluate the stigmatization of the physicians working in a university hospital towards patients with mental disorders, to determine the related characteristics, and to compare them in terms of assistant physicians, specialist physicians and lecturers. It is a cross-sectional type survey study in which 496 physicians participated. Personal and professional characteristics were compared in terms of Opinions About Mental Illness Questionnaire. One-fourth of the physicians stated that they had a mental disorder before, and one-third of them had a history of mental disorders in their first-degree relatives. About half of the participants reported that they frequently encountered psychiatric patients in clinical practice. Almost all physicians consider their knowledge of psychiatric patients and their treatment inadequate. One third of the physicians included in our study had a previous negative experience with psychiatric patients in clinical practice. Male physicians were found to be more stigmatizing in Authoritarianism and Interpersonal Etiology. As the age and working time of the physicians increase, the scores of the Authoritarianism improve, while the scores of the Mental Hygiene Ideology worsen. In the Mental Hygiene Ideology, specialist physicians have higher scores, and in the Authoritarianism, assistant physicians' scores are higher. In the Authoritarianism, Social Restrictiveness and Interpersonal Etiology, non-psychiatry specialties have a more negative attitude towards patients with mental disorders, while in the Benevolence, psychiatry specialties have a more negative attitude towards patients with mental disorders. It has been determined that having a history of mental disorder in physicians increases stigmatic attitudes and behaviors in the Benevolence against patients with mental disorders. Not having a relative with a mental disorder increases the stigmatic attitudes and behaviors of the Authoritarianism and Social Restrictiveness. Individuals with mental disorders are exposed to stigma, as in the past. It has been determined that the frequency of this type of stigmatization in the society is not low in physicians.