The effect of internalized stigma level on the quality of the life among patients with alcohol and substance use disorders

Many aspects of persons with mental illness's life are affected by stigmatization. Moreover Internalized stigma affects the quality of life for individuals with many aspects. In researches conducted exploration of the relation between internalized stigma and quality of life for individuals with the alcohol and substance addiction diagnosis have not been encountered. Therefore the purpose of the present study was to investigate the correlation between these two variables. The present research sample composed of individuals between 18-65 ages including 30 women and 52 men. Sociodemographic information form was used with the aim of determining the characteristics of demographic and the disease of participants, at the same time ''The Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness (ISMI) scale'' was administrated to the participants to identify the internalized stigma level. Lastly ''Application of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Instrument, Short Form (WHOQOL-BREF)'' was applied to the participants to measure the quality of life. According to the results of the conducted correlation analysis, significant relations were appointed between the variables. In the case of the result of multi regression analysis, it can be said that in the mental illnesses the sub-factors of the scale of internalized stigma predict the subfields of the scale for the quality of life.