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Sri Lankan doctors’ and medical undergraduates’ attitudes towards mental illness

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Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Stigmatizing attitudes towards mental illness can impede help-seeking and adversely affect treatment outcomes, especially if such attitudes are endorsed by medical personnel. In order to help identify targets for anti-stigma interventions, we comprehensively examined negative attitudes towards mental illness displayed by Sri Lankan doctors and medical students and compared these with equivalent UK and other international data.

Method

A self-report questionnaire originally developed in the UK was completed by medical students (n = 574) and doctors (n = 74) from a teaching hospital in Colombo. The questions assessed the presence and intensity of stigmatizing attitudes towards patients with schizophrenia, depression, panic disorder, dementia and drug and alcohol addiction.

Results

The study revealed higher levels of stigma towards patients with depression, alcohol and drug addiction in this Sri Lankan sample compared to UK data but attitudes towards schizophrenia were less stigmatized in Sri Lanka. Blaming attitudes were consistently high across diagnoses in the Sri Lankan sample. Sri Lankan medical students displayed more negative attitudes than doctors (P < 0.001). Overall stigma was greatest towards patients with drug addiction, followed by, alcohol addiction, schizophrenia, depression, panic disorder and dementia.

Conclusions

Sri Lankan doctors and undergraduates endorse stigmatizing attitudes towards mental illnesses and are especially prone to see patients as blameworthy. As such attitudes are likely to affect the engagement of patients in treatment and specific interventions that modify negative attitudes towards people with mental illnesses are needed. Ensuring that medical students have contact with recovered patients in community psychiatry settings may be one way of decreasing stigmatizing attitudes.

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Acknowledgments

The study team thanks the Sri Lankan medical students and doctors who gave their time to participate in this study. Funding for this study was supported by the “Developing Australia’s Capacity in South Asia” (DACSA) Scholarship (sponsored by AusAID and the Australian Research Council’s Asia Pacific Futures Research Network) that funded the PhD.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychological Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Colombo, Sri Lanka

    Sunera Mayanthi Fernando

  2. School of Health Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia

    Sunera Mayanthi Fernando

  3. Illawara Institute for Mental Health and School of Psychology, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia

    Frank P. Deane & Hamish J. McLeod

Authors
  1. Sunera Mayanthi Fernando
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  2. Frank P. Deane
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  3. Hamish J. McLeod
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Correspondence to Sunera Mayanthi Fernando.

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Fernando, S.M., Deane, F.P. & McLeod, H.J. Sri Lankan doctors’ and medical undergraduates’ attitudes towards mental illness. Soc Psychiat Epidemiol 45, 733–739 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-009-0113-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-009-0113-6

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