Factors Affecting Stigma of Schizophrenic Patient

Han, Kyeong Lae; Kim, Sung Wan; Lee, Moo Suk

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
Stigma of schizophrenic patient has a negative effect on the social adaptation of patients to return to society after proper treatment. This study showed the factors affecting the stigma recognized by schizophrenic patient and utilized them as the basic materials to overcome such stigma effectively.
SUBJECTS AND METHOD
Total number of subjects were 318, including 278 patients who receive treatment of schizophrenia in NaJu National Hospital and 40 patients of Chonam University Hospital. The evaluation instrument of the stigma refers to 'Wording of Items in the Stigma Scale' developed by Bruce Link, translated into Korean and revised into 20 items after getting through preliminary study. It was consisted of three subscales including secret, prejudice and devaluation. Authors examined the subjects' demographical characteristics, clinical variables and degree of depression through Beck Depression Inventory. Observed were the correlation between these factors and the degree of stigma to understand the factors affecting the degree of stigma.
RESULTS
This study showed that there was a significant differences in the degree of stigma according to occupation, degree of family support felt by patients, frequency of family visits and level of depression. In the degree of stigma according to occupation, students, farmers and the unemployee showed relatively higher stigma than professional technicians, especially in devaluation scale. The degree of family support felt by patients and frequency of family visits were reversely correlated with the degree of stigma. The level of depression was correlated with the degree of stigma. There is no significant difference in the degree of the whole stigma, but there is a significant difference in subscales according to the experiences of participation in disease education and treatment in hospitals. Patients who received no psychoeducation showed high scores in secret scale and patients of NaJu National Hospital had higher prejudice than patients of Chonam University Hospital. Such factors as sex, age, education, marital status, religion, residence, family economic status, frequency of hospitalization, experience of open ward, recent regular treatment and duration of illness did not show significant correlations with the degree of stigma.
CONCLUSIONS
It is found that family support, regular occupation and frequent patient visits can be factors decreasing the stigma. Psychoeducation about mental illness is related to the reducing the tendency to hide the disease. In addition, coping with derpession can be helpful to reduce the stigma of patients and effective social adaptation.