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Relationships of perceived public stigma of mental illness and psychosis-like experiences in a non-clinical population sample

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Abstract

Purpose

Studies on the association between psychopathology, perceived public stigma, and labeling in mental illness have focused primarily on severe but rare mental disorders, especially schizophrenia, or other clinically defined psychotic disorders. Although evidence is mounting that psychosis-like experiences show high prevalence in the general population and lead to an increased risk of psychotic disorders, little is known about how psychosis-like experiences independently affect perceived public stigma in the non-clinical population. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between psychosis-like experiences and perceived public stigma in a non-clinical sample.

Methods

For this cross-sectional study, we recruited 524 individuals (239 male, 285 female) who had no lifetime history of psychiatric disorder. Participants completed questionnaires that asked for sociodemographic and clinical information, a measure of perceived public stigma (Perceived Psychiatric Stigma Scale [PPSS]), and two measures of psychosis-like experiences (Peters et al. Delusions Inventory [PDI]; Cardiff Anomalous Perceptions Scale [CAPS]).

Results

Of the sociodemographic characteristics analyzed in this study—gender, age, education level, marital status, and religion—only age simultaneously influenced PPSS, PDI, and CAPS scores. As hypothesized, perceived public stigma was positively correlated with measures of psychosis-like experiences, even after controlling for age. Furthermore, the perceived stigma was more strongly associated with delusion proneness than with anomalous perceptual experiences.

Conclusion

The association between psychopathology and perceived public stigma appears to extend beyond clinically defined psychosis to more common psychosis-like experiences in a sample drawn from the general Han Chinese population.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their sincere thanks to Prof. Peters, Prof. Halligan, and Prof. Chen, the original PDI, CAPS, and PPSS designers, respectively, for their permission to administer these self-reported instruments in our study. We also thank the participants who kindly volunteered to take part in this study. This research was supported by a grant from the Tri-Service General Hospital Songshan Branch, Taipei, Taiwan. Our gratitude goes to the Academic Paper Editing Clinic, NTNU.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Promotion and Health Education, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Yin-Ju Lien

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Tri-Service General Hospital Songshan Branch, 131 Jiankang Road, Songshan District, Taipei, 10581, Taiwan

    Yu-Chen Kao, Chien-Wen Lu & Shwu-Jon Lin

  3. Department of Psychiatry, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan

    Yu-Chen Kao, Hsin-An Chang & Nian-Sheng Tzeng

  4. Department of Physiology, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan

    Yia-Ping Liu

  5. Department of Family Medicine, Taichung Armed Forces General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan

    Ching-Hui Loh

  6. School of Medicine, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan

    Ching-Hui Loh

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  1. Yin-Ju Lien
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Correspondence to Yu-Chen Kao.

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Lien, YJ., Kao, YC., Liu, YP. et al. Relationships of perceived public stigma of mental illness and psychosis-like experiences in a non-clinical population sample. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 50, 289–298 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-014-0929-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-014-0929-6

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