Eustigma: European Study on the Attitude of Psychiatrists Towards Their Patients

Sponsor
Semmelweis University (Other)
Overall Status
Recruiting
CT.gov ID
NCT04644978
Collaborator
(none)
5,000
35
17.1
142.9
8.4

Study Details

Study Description

Brief Summary

Background: Many people think that people with mental disorders might be dangerous or unpredictable. These patients face various sources of disadvantages and experience discrimination on job interviews, in education, and housing. Mental health-related stigma (MHS) occurs not only within the public community, it is a growing issue among professionals as well.

Aim: We designed a prospective, observational, multi-centre, international study of 35 European countries to investigate the MHS among medical specialists and trainees in the field of general adult and child and adolescent psychiatry.

Methods: An internet-based, anonymous survey will measure the stigmatizing attitude by using the local version of the Opening Minds Stigma Scale for Health Care Providers.

Presentation of the Results: The results of the research will be published in an international peer-reviewed journal. Furthermore, we will present the results on national and international conferences.

Condition or Disease Intervention/Treatment Phase
  • Other: anonymous online survey

Detailed Description

There is a rising interest for the examination of the MHS that has been mostly studied among community people. Numerous international studies have shown that people with mental illness are considered to be unpredictable and dangerous (Corrigan et al, 2005). These people often experience disadvantages in various situations, like job interviews, in education, and housing (Corrigan et al, 1998; Thornicroft et al., 2009).

The MHS has been much less examined among medical professionals and psychiatrists; however, studies have shown that it is prevalent among them as well.

A recent multi-centre study (Harangozó et al., 2014) collected the positive and negative experiences of 777 people with schizophrenia about the access to healthcare services in 27 countries. More than 17% of the patients experienced some kind of discrimination due to their mental illness when they sought medical care for physical problems. More than 38% felt that the medical staff was disrespectful during psychiatric services. Higher discrimination was found within the former Eastern Bloc countries.

Generally, psychiatrists tend to be more empathetic towards people with mental illnesses; however, the MHS could be observed among them as well. A few studies have also shown that their attitude is more negative than that of community people (Wahl et al., 2010; Henderson et al., 2014).

Based on the ambiguous results and the lack of studies focusing on the stigmatizing attitude of psychiatrists, we aimed to examine this important issue among medical professionals of the mental health field.

Aim of the study:

Our aim is to investigate the stigmatizing attitudes and behaviours of adult psychiatric and child and adolescent psychiatric professionals and trainees towards people with mental illness in European countries.

The results of our study will contribute to the expansion of the existing knowledge both on national and international levels. The outcome could be used for the development of anti-stigma programs and the improvement of therapeutic options in the future.

Structure of the research:

Our study is cross-sectional and multi-centred across 35 European countries. We would like to measure the extent of the stigmatizing attitude and its relationship with psychosocial factors.

  • Sociodemographic measures:

  • sociodemographic data: age, sex

  • professional data: workplace categories (university, psychiatric hospital, outpatient service, research centre); location of the workplace (capital, county seat, rural town, small town, village); years of the professional experience; current psychotherapeutic activity

  • personal information (related to a stigmatizing attitude): mental illness known in his/her family or close friend, previous treatment for own mental illness, attending in psychotherapy

  • National version of the Opening Minds Stigma Scale for Health Care Providers (OMS-HC)

An online questionnaire will be provided for the participants of our study. Participation in the study is voluntary and it can be terminated at any time without having to give any reasons.

Study Design

Study Type:
Observational
Anticipated Enrollment :
5000 participants
Observational Model:
Other
Time Perspective:
Cross-Sectional
Official Title:
European Study on the Attitude of Psychiatrists Towards Their Patients
Actual Study Start Date :
Jul 29, 2020
Anticipated Primary Completion Date :
Jul 1, 2021
Anticipated Study Completion Date :
Dec 31, 2021

Arms and Interventions

Arm Intervention/Treatment
Trainees and specialists in child and adult psychiatry

The responder must be a practising specialist or trainee in psychiatry or child and adolescent psychiatry in the participating European countries on the basis of his / her own declaration. Responders could provide their consent by choosing "I agree" on the website, after reading the information leaflet and the informed consent form.

Other: anonymous online survey
An online questionnaire will be provided for the participants of our study. Participation in the study is voluntary and it can be terminated at any time without having to give any reasons.

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

  1. stigmatising attitude [Baseline]

    The main questionnaire is the Opening Minds Stigma Scale for Health Care Providers (OMS-HC) which is a self-report questionnaire that contains 15 statements describing feelings and opinions about people with mental health problems. . In the survey, the subjects indicate on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = "strongly disagree" to 5 = "strongly agree") the extent they identify themselves with the given statement. The overall stigmatising attitude of the participants is described with the total score of the scale (minimum of 15, and a maximum of 75 points). Besides the total score, three dimensions can be calculated by evaluating the three subscales of the questionnaire (Attitude, Disclosure and Help-seeking, and Social Distance). Higher scores on a subscale and higher total scores reflect a more stigmatising attitude.

Eligibility Criteria

Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study:
24 Years and Older
Sexes Eligible for Study:
All
Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
Yes
Inclusion Criteria:
  • The responder must be a practising specialist or trainee in psychiatry or child and adolescent psychiatry in one of the participating countries on the basis of his / her own declaration.

  • Responders could provide their consent by choosing "I agree" on the website, after reading the information leaflet and the informed consent form. Only those participants will be able to complete the online survey who chose "I agree" on the website.

Exclusion Criteria:
  • The choice of "I do not agree" option of the participant on the website after reading the informed consent form. The responder will be guided automatically to the end of the survey.

Contacts and Locations

Locations

Site City State Country Postal Code
1 Xhavit Gjata Hospital Tirana Albania
2 Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapeutic Medicin, Medical University of Graz Graz Austria
3 City Hospital N15 Baku Azerbaijan
4 Psychiatric Clinic of Minsk City Minsk Belarus
5 Military Medical Academy, Department of Psychiatry Sofia Bulgaria
6 General Hospital Karlovac Karlovac Croatia
7 Private Practice Nicosia Cyprus
8 3rd Faculty of Medicine, Charles University Prague Czechia
9 Research Unit for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychiatry- Aalborg University Hospital Aalborg Denmark
10 University of Tartu Tartu Estonia
11 EPSM Étienne Gourmelen Quimper France
12 Klinikum rechts der Isar der Technischen Universität München Munich Germany
13 Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Ioannina Ioánnina Greece
14 Semmelweis University Budapest Hungary 1085
15 Department of Liasion Psychiatry, Mater University Hospital Dublin Ireland
16 University Magna Graecia of Catanzaro Catanzaro Italy
17 Mental Health Center Prizren, Hospital and University Clinical Service of Kosovo Prizren Kosovo
18 Hospital Gintermuiza Jelgava Latvia
19 Vilnius University, Facutly of Medicine, Psychiatric Clinic Vilnius Lithuania
20 Mount Carmel Hospital Attard Malta
21 Clinical Centre of Montenegro, Clinic for Psychiatry Podgorica Montenegro
22 Erasmus University Rotterdam Netherlands
23 Department of Psychiatry, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University Skopje North Macedonia
24 Department and Clinic of Psychiatry, Wroclaw Medical University Wrocław Poland
25 nstitute of Psychological Medicine, Faculty of Medicine of University of Coimbra Coimbra Portugal
26 SCUC, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Clinic Cluj-Napoca Romania
27 The Serbsky State Scientific Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry Moscow Russian Federation
28 Institute for Mental Health Belgrade Serbia
29 Psychiatric Hospital Michalovce Michalovce Slovakia
30 Centre for Clinical Psychiatry, University Psychiatric Clinic and Children's hospital Ljubljana Ljubljana Slovenia
31 University of Navarra Clinic Pamplona Spain
32 Psychiatrische Klinik Clienia Littenheid Littenheid Switzerland
33 Ankara City Hospital Bilkent Ankara Turkey
34 Chernivtsi Regional Mental Hospital, Bukovinian State Medical University Chernivtsi Ukraine
35 Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust Ashton-under-Lyne United Kingdom

Sponsors and Collaborators

  • Semmelweis University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Dorottya Ori, MD, Vadaskert Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Hospital, Budapest, Hungary

Study Documents (Full-Text)

None provided.

More Information

Publications

None provided.
Responsible Party:
Dorottya Ori, MD, Semmelweis University
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
NCT04644978
Other Study ID Numbers:
  • Eustigma - v. 1.0
First Posted:
Nov 25, 2020
Last Update Posted:
Nov 25, 2020
Last Verified:
Nov 1, 2020
Individual Participant Data (IPD) Sharing Statement:
No
Plan to Share IPD:
No
Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated Drug Product:
No
Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated Device Product:
No
Keywords provided by Dorottya Ori, MD, Semmelweis University
Additional relevant MeSH terms:

Study Results

No Results Posted as of Nov 25, 2020