Research Article | Open Access
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