부산대학교 도서관

OBJECTIVE To discover the subjective experience of stigma among the persons diagnosed with severe mental illnesses and to see the difference between level of internalized stigma in persons with SMI i.e. persons with schizophrenia spectrum disorder and major depressive disorder. DESIGN Descriptive/Exploratory Study PLACE OF DURATION OF STUDY Data was collected during the period of Jan, 2014 to Mar, 2015 from Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan Centre, Institute of Behavioral Sciences (IBS), and Gulshan Psychiatric Hospital (GPH), Karachi. SUBJECTS AND METHOD 120 participants were included. A purposive sample of 52 diagnosed persons with schizophrenia and 68 persons diagnosed with depression, age ranges 18 to 55 (mean age = 36.63, SD = 9.37) of both gender (male 34, female 18) who belonged to different socioeconomic status was taken from different psychiatric hospitals of Karachi. A demographic sheet, and Urdu Version of Internalized Stigma of Mental illness Scale (ISMI) were used. RESULTS Results indicated that persons with severe mental illness suffer 55% from severe level of internalized stigma. 84.6% individuals with schizophrenia fell under the category of severe level of internalized stigma. 36.4% individuals with major depression fell in moderate level. CONCLUSION Current findings call for concrete actions to provide effective services and group effort of health practitioners to reduce stigma in persons with severe mental illnesses side by side just treating the symptomatology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]