Personality and perception of stigma in psychiatric patients with depressive disorders

The study seeks to determine the relationships between neuroticism and extroversion, on the one side, and the perception of various dimensions of social stigma, on the other, in psychiatric in-patients with depressive disorders, such as depressive episodes, or mood and anxiety disorders with the presence of depressive symptoms.

A total of 72 patients were examined in the study. Twenty four of them (F/M - 12/12; age range 42-65 years) were used for assessing the reliability of a depression stigma questionnaire (DSQ) created specifically for this study. The remaining 48 patients (F/M - 31/17; age range 17-74 years) were then surveyed with the DSQ and other psychometric tools employed in the study. Self-reported data on the self-stigma, perceived stigma, public (mirrored) stigma, secrecy, treatment stigma, and the levels of neuroticism, extroversion, and depression were collected.

The study demonstrates that treatment stigma and secrecy were the most frequent aspects of stigma experienced by the patients. Secrecy correlated negatively with age and positively with the education level. There were correlations between neuroticism and four of the stigma dimensions: treatment stigma, secrecy, perceived stigma, and self-stigma. Extroversion, in turn, correlated with perceived stigma, public stigma, and self-stigma.

The study confirms the relevance of personality resources in the perception and coping with stigma and points to secrecy as a major underlying factor in these processes. In light of the present findings, stigma experienced by the patient is not only related to the external indicators of social stigmatization and the state of depression, but also to the personal features of an individual.