Paredes MHM, Jiménez TG, Vázquez EMF

Language: Spanish
References: 12
Page: 88-92
PDF size: 120.00 Kb.

ABSTRACT

Psychiatric illness is a major health problem and one of the most stigmatized conditions in society. The internalized stigma refers to how the patient feels and lives psychiatric illness, integrating the shame, guilt and fear of discrimination created by the labels, stereotypes and prejudices that society has towards him and his condition. The main objective of this study was to measure Internalized Stigma and determine its relationship with social adjustment in psychiatric patients.
We performed a prospective, cross-sectional and comparative study in outpatients from the psychiatry service of Hospital de Especialidades CMN SXXI. Sociodemographic questionnaire, Social Adjustment Scale and Internalized Stigma Scale was used. We performed univariate statistical analysis to observe the distribution of the variables of interest and bivariate analysis for intergroup relations. These data were analyzed in statistical package SPSS 20.
We studied a total of 80 psychiatric patients who obtained in the Internalized Stigma Scale an average of 25.09. Patients with schizophrenia (33.00), substance abuse (30.62) and bipolar disorder (29.71) had higher scores than anxiety disorder (24.28) and unipolar depressive disorder (22.82). We found a negative correlation between internalized stigma and social adjustment of -0.375 (p=0.001). We found that internalized stigma differs in psychiatric disorder, this may be due to schizophrenia, substance abuse and bipolar disorder are more stigmatized conditions in society generating lower social adaption. This may be because the patient realizes his condition, victim of prejudice and labels imposed by society, decides to hide and deny his condition, decreases seeking care, increased symptoms and worsens the prognosis.
It is important to know internalized stigma in psychiatric patient to provide a more holistic and comprehensive approach, allowing better doctor-patient relationship, social adaptation and prognosis.

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