Khan Shaffaque Ikhtiar, Irfan Muhammad
Shaffaque Ikhtiar Khan, House Officer, Riphah International University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Prof. Dr. Muhammad Irfan, Department of Mental Health, Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, Peshawar Medical College, Peshawar, Pakistan.
Pak J Med Sci. 2023 Sep-Oct;39(5):1411-1415. doi: 10.12669/pjms.39.5.7487.
To assess the understanding of the patients with common mental disorders, towards issues related to their mental health.
This qualitative study was conducted from December 2018 to April 2020. Thirty-four patients, suffering from common mental disorders, were interviewed in public and private sector hospitals of Peshawar. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, translated into English, and themes were generated from their responses. Content analysis was carried out on the data obtained. The themes resulting from each interview were then further comparatively analyzed.
The mean age of the sample was 31.9±10.61 years. Most of the patients (n=24, 70.6%) were aware that the nature of their illness was a psychological one with a majority (n=17, 50%) describing it with the symptoms of headache or burden on the head. Most of the patients (n=14, 41.1%) were unaware of the general public opinion towards mental disorders but those who were aware described these with stigmatizing descriptions e.g., "people call them crazy" etc. Most of the patients (n=20, 58.8%) were unaware about their own opinion regarding their illness and some said that they tried to conceal their illness from others. Unfortunately, most of the patients (n=19, 55.8%) were not aware of mental healthcare professionals or the existence of psychiatry as a profession.
Stigma, both public and personal, was quite high, which caused patients to feel compelled to conceal their illness. There was also a general lack of knowledge with regard to mental disorders in our society. The general public opinion about mental health professionals was not favorable.
评估患有常见精神障碍的患者对与其心理健康相关问题的理解。
这项定性研究于2018年12月至2020年4月进行。在白沙瓦的公立和私立医院对34名患有常见精神障碍的患者进行了访谈。访谈进行了录音、转录、翻译成英文，并从他们的回答中提炼出主题。对获得的数据进行了内容分析。然后对每次访谈产生的主题进行了进一步的比较分析。
样本的平均年龄为31.9±10.61岁。大多数患者（n = 24，70.6%）意识到自己疾病的性质是心理方面的，大多数（n = 17，50%）将其描述为头痛或头部有负担的症状。大多数患者（n = 14，41.1%）不知道公众对精神障碍的看法，但那些知道的人用带有污名化的描述来形容，例如“人们称他们为疯子”等。大多数患者（n = 20，58.8%）不知道自己对疾病的看法，一些人说他们试图向他人隐瞒自己的疾病。不幸的是，大多数患者（n = 19，55.8%）不知道精神卫生保健专业人员或精神病学作为一个专业的存在。
公众和个人层面的污名都很高，这使得患者不得不隐瞒自己的疾病。我们社会对精神障碍也普遍缺乏了解。公众对精神卫生专业人员的看法并不有利。
