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Original papers: Raja Mukherjee, Antonio Fialho, Aruna Wijetunge, Ken Checinski, and Tammy Surgenor The stigmatisation of psychiatric illness: the attitudes of medical students and doctors in a London teaching hospital Psychiatr Bull 2002; 26: 178-181 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]

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Psychiatric stigma among medical teachers

Ravi Jayawardana, W.D.D. Fernando, Lecturer, Dept. of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Ragama, Sri Lanka   (28 April 2005)

Psychiatric stigma among medical teachers 28 April 2005
Ravi Jayawardana, Lecturer Dept. of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Ragama, Sri Lanka, W.D.D. Fernando, Lecturer, Dept. of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Ragama, Sri Lanka Send letter to journal: Re: Psychiatric stigma among medical teachers marjayawardana{at}yahoo.com Ravi Jayawardana, et al.	We welcome the article 'The stigmatization of psychiatric illness: the attitudes of medical students and doctors in a London teaching hospital', (1) providing information and stimulating debate on psychiatric stigma among medical professionals and medical students. A similar study was conducted at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Ragama, Sri Lanka to assess the diverse aspects of psychiatric stigma amongst the medical teachers. Medical teachers were defined as all the members of the Faculty academic staff who holds MBBS or an equivalent medical degree, currently involved in teaching medical students. A pre- tested, self-administered questionnaire was distributed among all the medical teachers (192) of the Faculty. A total of 168 questionnaires were returned. The results were, in many ways could be interpreted as desirable though certain attitudes were notably discriminatory. Not surprisingly all the respondents were well aware of the fact that psychiatric illness has an aetiological basis. All of them were also familiar with the common treatment strategies deployed in the management of such patients. 77.3%(130/168) and 92.8%(156/168) of the staff indicated that people with psychotic and neurotic illnesses could be employed respectively when they make a complete recovery. But when they were asked whether they would like to work with a person who has completely recovered from psychiatric illness their willingness plummeted to 42/168(25.0%) and 79/168(47.0%) respectively for psychotic and neurotic illnesses. Likewise an overwhelming majority of the medical teachers indicated that those who made a complete recovery is fit enough to marry and to reproduce. The figures were 73.8 %( 124/168) for people with psychotic illnesses and 91.0%(153/168) for people with neurotic illnesses. However when they were asked whether they were willing to choose a partner who has had a past history of a mental illness, there was a dramatic decline with regard to the interest. The figures were 56/168(33.3%) for psychotic illnesses and 70/168(41.6%) for neurotic illnesses respectively. Even though the factual knowledge with regard to psychiatric illnesses is comparatively better among the medical teachers, the attitudes towards 'mentally ill' were no way near to be called idealistic. This reflects a profound reality. Knowledge is one of the many aspects which will facilitate to develop anti-stigmatizing attitudes. The belief that stigma will disappear eventually with the expansion of medical knowledge is only partially correct. This has been further demonstrated by a study conducted among psychiatrists which revealed that stigmatizing attitudes exists even among psychiatrists(2). There are many other social, cultural, psychological etc. issues as yet unknown and hence they are currently not being addressed. Successful identification and subsequent manipulation of these anti- stigmatizing elements will no doubt help to improve the overall quality of life of the people with psychiatric illness. In future we hope that the Royal College will launch a more result oriented Changing Minds campaign whilst making full use of those unaddressed issues. References 1.Raja Mukherjee, Antonio Fialho, Aruna Wijetunge, Ken Checinski, and Tammy Surgenor The stigmatisation of psychiatric illness: the attitudes of medical students and doctors in a London teaching hospital Psychiatr Bull 2002; 26: 178-181 2.David Kingdon, Tonmoy Sharma, Deborah Hart The Schizophrenia Subgroup of The Royal College of Psychiatrists' Changing Minds Campaign What attitudes do psychiatrists hold towards people with mental illness? Psychiatr. Bull., Nov 2004; 28: 401 - 406.