Attitudes of psychiatrists toward patients with schizophrenia

Abstract

A questionnaire was distributed to psychiatrists to investigate their attitudes toward patients with schizophrenia. A total of 42.7% of 60 respondents never informed patients of the diagnosis of schizophrenia and 40.7% informed on a case-by-case basis. The reason that psychiatrists gave for avoiding informing the patients/family members of the diagnosis was the idea that they would not understand the meaning (32.6%) and that they would drop-out from treatment (28.3%). A total of 88.4% of respondents thought the term 'schizophrenia' was used in a pejorative manner in public. The findings revealed that stigmatizing attitudes of society are also shared by some psychiatrists.