Lim Leslie, Goh Justine, Chan Yiong-Huak
Department of Psychiatry, Singapore General Hospital, Republic of Singapore.
Biostatistics Unit, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Republic of Singapore.
Australas Psychiatry. 2019 Dec;27(6):584-588. doi: 10.1177/1039856219859293. Epub 2019 Jun 27.
Psychiatric patients often experience internalized stigma. This occurs when persons accept the negative attitudes of others towards them, then internalize and apply these beliefs to themselves. We assess the effects of internalized stigma on illness disclosure and on self-esteem in psychiatric outpatients, hypothesizing that internalized stigma is more pronounced in psychiatric patients than in medical patient controls and that internalized stigma is associated with avoidance of disclosure, as well as reduced self-esteem.
Psychiatric and medical outpatients were randomly selected to participate in the study, conducted at a general hospital specialist outpatient clinic.
Psychiatric patients demonstrated significantly lower self-esteem than controls. Internalized stigma was the highest for singles, and the lowest among married and older patients. Among psychiatric patients, a higher internalized stigma was significantly associated with experienced discrimination and with lower levels of self-esteem. Those who avoided disclosure had significantly higher internalized stigma than those who self-disclosed.
The results confirmed our study hypotheses. Marriage and older age seemed to confer a protective effect on self-esteem.
精神科患者常常经历内化耻辱感。当人们接受他人对自己的负面态度，然后将这些观念内化并应用于自身时，就会出现这种情况。我们评估内化耻辱感对精神科门诊患者疾病披露和自尊的影响，假设内化耻辱感在精神科患者中比在内科患者对照组中更为明显，并且内化耻辱感与避免披露以及自尊降低有关。
在一家综合医院专科门诊随机选取精神科和内科门诊患者参与研究。
精神科患者的自尊显著低于对照组。内化耻辱感在单身患者中最高，在已婚和年长患者中最低。在精神科患者中，较高的内化耻辱感与经历的歧视以及较低的自尊水平显著相关。避免披露的患者内化耻辱感显著高于自我披露的患者。
结果证实了我们的研究假设。婚姻和年长似乎对自尊有保护作用。
