Tang Yi-lang, Sevigny Robert, Mao Pei-xian, Jiang Feng, Cai Zhuoji
Department of Psychiatry, Beijing An Ding Hospital, Capital University of Medical Sciences, Beijing, 100088, China.
Adm Policy Ment Health. 2007 Mar;34(2):101-7. doi: 10.1007/s10488-006-0084-9.
To investigate the help-seeking behaviors and related factors of Chinese psychiatric inpatients with schizophrenia.
Two hundred and two patients with schizophrenia (ICD-10) were enrolled in this study. A locally-developed, semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data, including data on illness and help-seeking histories from patients, informants, and medical records.
Among 202 inpatients, 120 patients (59.4%) had sought help from at least one type of non-psychiatric facility (NPF), and 82 patients (40.6%) went to a psychiatric hospital directly. Among the NPFs they contacted, 66 patients (32.7%) tried traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) from licensed practitioners (including acupuncturists), 64 (31.7%) chose general hospitals (including 9 who went to emergency departments), and 52 (25.7%) sought help from qigong (breathing exercise) masters or other folk healing methods. The reasons for seeking treatment from NPFs varied; the most common ones included feeling shameful or stigmatized about going to psychiatric hospitals, inaccessibility to or unavailability of psychiatric hospitals, and fear of being incarcerated or receiving electric shock treatment.
A substantial proportion of psychiatric inpatients in China seek help from non-psychiatric facilities and/or folk healing methods. Feeling shameful or stigmatized, inaccessibility to and/or unavailability of psychiatric services are among the most common barriers to seeking psychiatric treatment. Patients who sought psychiatric help directly are likely to be female, with a chronic onset of illness, a mixed syndrome of positive and negative symptoms, or a better economic status.
调查中国精神分裂症住院患者的求助行为及相关因素。
本研究纳入了202例符合国际疾病分类第十版（ICD - 10）的精神分裂症患者。采用自行编制的半结构化问卷收集数据，包括患者、 informant及病历中的疾病和求助史数据。
在202例住院患者中，120例（59.4%）曾向至少一种非精神科机构（NPF）求助，82例（40.6%）直接前往精神病医院。在他们接触的非精神科机构中，66例（32.7%）尝试了中医师（包括针灸师）的传统中医治疗，64例（31.7%）选择了综合医院（包括9例前往急诊科的患者），52例（25.7%）向气功大师或其他民间疗法寻求帮助。向非精神科机构求助的原因各不相同；最常见的原因包括对前往精神病医院感到羞耻或受 stigma，无法获得或没有精神病医院，以及害怕被监禁或接受电击治疗。
在中国，相当一部分精神科住院患者向非精神科机构和/或民间疗法寻求帮助。感到羞耻或受 stigma、无法获得和/或没有精神科服务是寻求精神科治疗最常见的障碍之一。直接寻求精神科帮助的患者可能为女性，疾病起病慢性，具有阳性和阴性症状的混合综合征，或经济状况较好。
