Testing psychiatric stigma in a general hospital in Saudi Arabia

To measure the stigma of psychiatric illness in a general hospital setting, and to test the connection between common ideas people have of patients with psychiatric illness (personal responsibility, and dangerousness), and the generation of discriminatory behavior.

A cross-sectional survey through internal mail was carried out in all the hospital staff of King Abdulaziz Hospital in Al-Ahsa, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire was distributed on the 1st of February, and the study was finished on the 12th of March 2008. The sample size of 860 staff members was included for the study. This study was approved by the Eastern Region National Guard's Health Affairs Research and Ethical Committee.

Hospital staff had high scores (6.8/9) for caring attitude for patients with psychiatric illness. They had medium scores for fear (4/9), avoidance (4.8/9), and dangerousness (4.3/9). They had low scores (3.1/9) for anger feelings toward these patients. Discriminatory behavior was found to be the result of feeling that these patients are dangerous, but not because they were held responsible for their illness.

Our staff had a caring attitude towards patients with psychiatric illness. The idea that the patients with psychiatric illness are to blame for their illness did not hold, while the idea that these patients are dangerous showed positive relationship with discriminatory behavior.