Authors : Dhritishree Das, Satabdi Chakraborti, Ram Pratap Beniwal, Ankur Sachdev
DOI : 10.18231/2455-8559.2018.0005
Volume : 4
Issue : 2
Year : 0
Page No : 66-71
Introduction: Studies have found greater experiences of stigma among persons with schizophrenia than other mental disorders. Caregiver’s knowledge and perception of schizophrenia might affect the perceived stigma by the patients. However, this relationship between knowledge of schizophrenia among caregivers and stigma faced by the persons with schizophrenia has not been explored.
Aim and Objective: To assess the relationship between caregivers’ knowledge of schizophrenia and the stigma faced by the persons with schizophrenia.
Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted on 70 persons with schizophrenia of minimum one-year duration and living with their primary caregivers’ for at least 6-months. Subjects of both genders with age range of 18 to 60 years were assessed with ‘internalized stigma of mental illness’ (ISMI) scale and ‘knowledge about schizophrenia interview’ (KASI) scale, along with their primary caregivers.
Results: We found a negative co-relation between primary caregivers’ knowledge and the stigma faced by the persons with schizophrenia. Caregivers knowledge about ‘etiology’ (p=0.01), ‘course & prognosis’ (p=0.03) and overall knowledge about ‘schizophrenia’ (p=0.03) was significantly associated with reduced ‘perceived discrimination’ faced by the persons with schizophrenia.
Conclusion: The study concludes that primary caregivers’ awareness and knowledge about different aspects of schizophrenia shows significant negative correlation with perceived discrimination among persons with schizophrenia. However, knowledge assessed was based on the biomedical model. Therefore, development of assessment tools for knowledge about schizophrenia based on culture specific beliefs is highly recommended.
Keywords: Primary caregiver, Stigma, Knowledge, Schizophrenia.