The attitudes of medical doctors, nurses and lay people towards schizophrenia, depression and PTSD.

BACKGROUND: The stigma attached to mental illness has negative effects on individuals who experience the condition, and, while it is present in the attitudes of both lay people and mental health professionals, it is reduced in people who have had previous contact with those with mental illness. The present study focused on the influence of medical professionals' contact with individuals with three mental disorders, namely, schizophrenia, depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), in order to determine whether it is contact in general or specific contact with a certain disorder that reduces stigma. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A total of 270 nurses, 30 medical doctors and 87 lay people (>75% women) assessed 15 items for each of the mental disorders on a Likert-type scale. RESULTS: The stigma attached to PTSD was of a lower level than the stigma attached to schizophrenia, but higher than that attached to depression. Medical doctors attached the lowest level of stigma to mental illness, and lay people attached the highest. No correlation was found between stigma and age or gender. Those who knew a person with a particular mental illness attached less of a stigma to that condition, but not to the other two disorders. CONCLUSION: Contact with people with mental illness reduces the stigma associated with people with that same illness, but not that which is attached to other mental disorders.