Stigmas toward Psychosis-related Clinical Features and Depression in General Publics with Different Characteristics
Poster A31, Monday, October%208, 11:30%20am%20-%201:00%20pm, Essex%20Ballroom
Chen-Chung Liu1, Yen-Chin Wang1; 1National Taiwan University Hospital
Mental health campaigns intended to educate the general public how to recognize early signs of psychosis; in the meanwhile, we did not know if people will inadvertently generalize their stigmas towards schizophrenia to subjects with subthreshold psychotic symptoms. A cross-sectional survey using a structuralized questionnaire, comprised by 4 case vignettes describing attenuated psychosis syndrome (APS), schizophrenia, depression, and psychotic-like experiences (PLE), followed by 2 sets of questions using 4-point Likert scale with 19 and 21 items, respectively, to measure discrimination and prejudices, was employed. Participants were laypersons invited after their attending talks about mental health topics and their close others. Their demographics were also collected. A total of 239 subjects (average age 36.1 years old and 144 females (62.3%)) completed this survey. A gradient of stigmas, highest toward schizophrenia, followed by APS/depression, and lowest toward PLE was apparent across gender, all age groups and education levels. Regarding stigmas toward individual clinical states, in general, participants who were younger and had higher education revealed a trend of lower prejudice and discrimination, though not all reached statistical significance. Interestingly, people who have visited psychiatric hospital for purpose other than treatment showed a higher, but not lower, discrimination, except no difference toward PLE. It is comfortable to find our lay respondents being able to differentiate the severity of PLE from APS and schizophrenia, especially younger and higher education groups. For better implementation of educational programs, more is to explore about mental health literacy and stigma in people with special backgrounds and personal experiences.
Topic Area: Ethical Issues