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Research Article | Open Access
Volume 12 2020 | None
Attitude to diseases and social distance of persons with mental disorders
Natalia K Rzhevskaya Victor A Ruzhenkov Victoria V Ruzhenkova Konstantin Yu Retyunsky Julia S Minakova
Pages: 599-605
Abstract
The stigma of a mental illness negatively affects the social status of patients, compliance, quality of life, and leads to self-stigmatization. The medical sociological method and the modified Bogardus social distance scale were used to examine 271 psychiatric patients in 3 regions of Russia. The sample included patients with schizophrenic disorders, affective disorders, and organic mental disorders. Persons with mental disorders have a high degree of social maladaptation combined with anosognosia: 26.4% of men and 21.7% of women completely denied the presence of mental illness; 51.8% of men and 37.6% of women admitted that they had “psychological problems”, another 16.6% of respondents indicated a “mild mental disorder”, and only 10.3% of patients reported having a mental diseases. A high level of stigmatization of persons with mental disorders by psychiatric patients was revealed, which is associated with insufficient criticism of their mental disorder.
Keywords
compliance, criticism of the disease, mental disorders, self-stigmatization, social distance
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