Stigma Toward Schizophrenia: Do All Psychiatrists Behave the Same? Latent Profile Analysis of a National Sample of Psychiatrists in Brazil

Overview

Journal BMC Psychiatry

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialty Psychiatry

Date 2013 Mar 23

PMID 23517184

Citations 13

Authors

Alexandre Andrade Loch

Francisco Bevilacqua Guarniero

Fabio Lorea Lawson

Michael Pascal Hengartner

Wulf Rossler

Wagner Farid Gattaz

Yuan-Pang Wang

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: An important issue concerning the worldwide fight against stigma is the evaluation of psychiatrists' beliefs and attitudes toward schizophrenia and mental illness in general. However, there is as yet no consensus on this matter in the literature, and results vary according to the stigma dimension assessed and to the cultural background of the sample. The aim of this investigation was to search for profiles of stigmatizing beliefs related to schizophrenia in a national sample of psychiatrists in Brazil.

Methods: A sample of 1414 psychiatrists were recruited from among those attending the 2009 Brazilian Congress of Psychiatry. A questionnaire was applied in face-to-face interviews. The questionnaire addressed four stigma dimensions, all in reference to individuals with schizophrenia: stereotypes, restrictions, perceived prejudice and social distance. Stigma item scores were included in latent profile analyses; the resulting profiles were entered into multinomial logistic regression models with sociodemographics, in order to identify significant correlates.

Results: Three profiles were identified. The "no stigma" subjects (n = 337) characterized individuals with schizophrenia in a positive light, disagreed with restrictions, and displayed a low level of social distance. The "unobtrusive stigma" subjects (n = 471) were significantly younger and displayed the lowest level of social distance, although most of them agreed with involuntary admission and demonstrated a high level of perceived prejudice. The "great stigma" subjects (n = 606) negatively stereotyped individuals with schizophrenia, agreed with restrictions and scored the highest on the perceived prejudice and social distance dimensions. In comparison with the first two profiles, this last profile comprised a significantly larger number of individuals who were in frequent contact with a family member suffering from a psychiatric disorder, as well as comprising more individuals who had no such family member.

Conclusions: Our study not only provides additional data related to an under-researched area but also reveals that psychiatrists are a heterogeneous group regarding stigma toward schizophrenia. The presence of different stigma profiles should be evaluated in further studies; this could enable anti-stigma initiatives to be specifically designed to effectively target the stigmatizing group.

Citing Articles

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Attitudes of psychiatrists towards people with mental illness: a cross-sectional, multicentre study of stigma in 32 European countries.

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Stigma towards mental illness and help-seeking behaviors among adult and child psychiatrists in Hungary: A cross-sectional study.

ori D, Szocsics P, Molnar T, Ralovich F, Huszar Z, Bene A PLoS One. 2022; 17(6):e0269802.

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Patterns of religiosity and spirituality of psychiatrists in Brazil and the implications for clinical practice: a latent profile analysis.

Menegatti-Chequini M, Loch A, Leao F, Peres M, Vallada H BMC Psychiatry. 2020; 20(1):546.

PMID: 33225925 PMC: 7682088. DOI: 10.1186/s12888-020-02929-x.

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