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This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it.

EV1280

Assessing attitudes toward mental illness and stigma among healthcare professionals: a cross-sectional study

ASSESSING ATTITUDE AND STIGMA TOWARDS MENTAL ILLNESS AMONG HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS-A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY.

Although overall stigma levels were low among non-psychiatric physicians, there was a significant difference between groups in the attitudes subscale, and stigmatizing beliefs remained prevalent.

The aim of the study was to assess attitudes toward patients with mental illness and levels of stigma among non-psychiatric physicians from different specialties. Using an observational, cross-sectional design and convenience sampling over a two-month period, the study recruited 208 non-psychiatric specialist physicians and medical interns; two validated scales were administered: the Attribution Questionnaire (AQ-27) and the Opening Minds Scale for Health Care Providers (OMS-HC-15). The sample comprised 96 MBBS physicians and 112 specialist physicians. The total AQ-27 score was 118.82 in the MBBS group and 117.83 in the specialist physician group; the highest subscale scores were for help (21.60 and 22.04), pity (18.97 and 19.03), and coercion (17.66 and 17.90). On the OMS-HC-15, a significant difference was found between the two groups on the attitudes subscale (MBBS 13.74; specialist physicians 15.15; p = 0.011), whereas there were no differences on the disclosure (p = 0.666) or social distance (p = 0.188) subscales. Of the participants, 19% reported feeling more comfortable helping someone with a physical illness than someone with a mental illness, 35.6% reported that there was little they could do to help people with mental illness, and 47.6% reported that more than half of people with mental illness did not try hard enough to get better. The authors noted that, despite generally low levels of stigma, there was room for improvement, particularly in attitudes, and recommended incorporating mental health courses into medical education and training programs and increasing physicians’ contact with patients with psychiatric disorders.

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