Self-stigma and suicidality in patients with neurotic spectrum disorder - a cross sectional study

Self-stigmatization is a step-by-step process during which the person uncritically accepts the societal negative evaluation and applies it to himself. Relation between self-stigma and suicidality in neurotic disorders is not known. The aim of our study was to find connection between self-stigma and the level of suicidality in neurotic spectrum disorders.

It was a cross-sectional study of 198 inpatients with pharmacoresistant neurotic spectrum disorders hospitalized at the psychotherapeutic ward of the Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital Olomouc. Patients were diagnosed using the ICD-10 research diagnostic criteria. The assessments included Internalized Stigma Of Mental Illness (ISMI), Beck Depression Inventory-second edition (BDI-II), objective and subjective Clinical Global Impression (CGI), Morin sleep scale, Dissociative Experience Scale (DES) and Montgomery and Asberg Depression Rating Scale, item 10 Suicidal Thoughts (MADRS item 10 suicidality) for the assessment.

The subjective rate of suicidality and also the objective rate of suicidality were strongly positively correlated with the total score of ISMI. There were also significant correlations with all subscores except for the correlation between the BDI 9 and the sub score Resistance against stigma, which barely missed the level of statistical significance.

More attention should be paid to self-stigma in neurotic patients, especially in those with suicidal thoughts and tendencies.