TY - JOUR

T1 - Educating Russian University students about psychiatric stigma

AU - Wasserman, Evgeny

AU - Lapshina, Natalia

PY - 2006/12/1

Y1 - 2006/12/1

N2 - Background. The stigma of psychiatric diseases is a barrier to the rehabilitation of mentally ill patients and their effective functioning in society. Professionals working with psychiatric patients very often themselves have negative beliefs and attitudes about their clients. We designed our pilot study to investigate the effectiveness of anti-stigma interventions among graduate students who are trained to provide special education. Methods. We enrolled 68 graduate students from the Herzen Russian State Pedagogic University (St. Petersburg), School of Special Education. Of those, 36 read an article and World Health Organization brochure devoted to the problem of psychiatric stigma, and 32 studied an anti-stigma computer program. The age of the study participants was 18.8±0.1 years, and they had already completed 12.2±1 years of education by this point. Of them, 98.5% were females, and 1.5% (1 person) males. We used the Bogardus Social Distance Scale (BSDS) and Community Attitudes toward the Mentally III (CAMI) scales to assess the level of psychiatric stigma before and after the intervention. Results. Both interventions were highly effective in reducing psychiatric stigma. In the group that studied the computer program, the level of stigma decreased from 18.8 to 14.2 points (BSDS, p<0.0001) and from 24.0 to 15.8 points (CAMI, p<0.0001). In the group that read the anti-stigma materials the level of stigma dropped from 18.5 to 15.3 points (BSDS, p<0.0001) and from 24.0 to 15.8 points (CAMI, p<0.0001). Conclusions. Computer-assisted education or reading anti-stigma materials could be effective in reducing psychiatric stigma among university students. Further studies are needed to assess sustainability of this effect.

AB - Background. The stigma of psychiatric diseases is a barrier to the rehabilitation of mentally ill patients and their effective functioning in society. Professionals working with psychiatric patients very often themselves have negative beliefs and attitudes about their clients. We designed our pilot study to investigate the effectiveness of anti-stigma interventions among graduate students who are trained to provide special education. Methods. We enrolled 68 graduate students from the Herzen Russian State Pedagogic University (St. Petersburg), School of Special Education. Of those, 36 read an article and World Health Organization brochure devoted to the problem of psychiatric stigma, and 32 studied an anti-stigma computer program. The age of the study participants was 18.8±0.1 years, and they had already completed 12.2±1 years of education by this point. Of them, 98.5% were females, and 1.5% (1 person) males. We used the Bogardus Social Distance Scale (BSDS) and Community Attitudes toward the Mentally III (CAMI) scales to assess the level of psychiatric stigma before and after the intervention. Results. Both interventions were highly effective in reducing psychiatric stigma. In the group that studied the computer program, the level of stigma decreased from 18.8 to 14.2 points (BSDS, p<0.0001) and from 24.0 to 15.8 points (CAMI, p<0.0001). In the group that read the anti-stigma materials the level of stigma dropped from 18.5 to 15.3 points (BSDS, p<0.0001) and from 24.0 to 15.8 points (CAMI, p<0.0001). Conclusions. Computer-assisted education or reading anti-stigma materials could be effective in reducing psychiatric stigma among university students. Further studies are needed to assess sustainability of this effect.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34347368561&partnerID=8YFLogxK

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:34347368561

VL - 4

SP - 1

EP - 4

JO - Bridging Eastern and Western Psychiatry

JF - Bridging Eastern and Western Psychiatry

SN - 1973-3291

IS - 1

ER -