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Changes in mental illness stigma over 30 years – Improvement, persistence, or deterioration?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 November 2022

Georg Schomerus*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Leipzig Medical Center, Leipzig, Germany
Stephanie Schindler
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Leipzig Medical Center, Leipzig, Germany
Christian Sander
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Leipzig Medical Center, Leipzig, Germany
Eva Baumann
Affiliation:
Department of Journalism and Communication Research, Hannover University of Music, Drama, and Media, Hannover, Germany
Matthias C. Angermeyer
Affiliation:
Center for Public Mental Health, Gösing am Wagram, Austria
*
*Author for correspondence: Georg Schomerus, E-mail: georg.schomerus@uni-leipzig.de

Abstract

Background

Large efforts have been made to erase the stigma of mental illness, but it is unclear whether they have succeeded on a population level. We examine how attitudes toward people with depression or schizophrenia have evolved in Germany since 1990, and whether there are different developments for both disorders.

Methods

Using data from the three decades, four wave repeated cross-sectional representative population study in the “old” (western) states in Germany with surveys in 1990 (n = 2,044), 2001 (n = 4,005), 2011 (n = 1,984), and 2020 (n = 2,449), we calculate time-trends for social distance and emotional reactions toward someone with major depression or acute schizophrenia.

Results

Social distance worsened in six out of seven situations for schizophrenia, whereas improving in two out of seven situations for depression. Emotions related to fear and uneasiness increased for schizophrenia, whereas tending to decrease for depression. Pro-social reactions like the desire to help increased for depression, but decreased for schizophrenia. Initially observed differences, favoring depression over schizophrenia, widened over the 30-year study period. For schizophrenia, the biggest negative changes occurred between 1990 and 2001, whereas some improvements with regard to depression occurred more recently.

Conclusion

Contrary to expectations, stigma has become more severe regarding acute schizophrenia in Germany over the last 30 years, whereas only slightly improving for depression. The apparent normalization of mental health problems seems not to directly translate into improving attitudes toward people with severe mental illness. Re-focusing of anti-stigma efforts on people with severe mental illness seems necessary.

Information

Type
Research Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
Figure 0

Figure 1. Changes in the desire for social distance from someone with schizophrenia or depression 1990–2020. Selected contrasts of multiple regression analyses with items of the Social Distance Scale as criterion and period, vignette, interaction of period*vignette, age, and gender of vignette or respondents as predictors. The contrast estimates describe the change from 1990 to 2020 per vignette, bars indicate 95% confidence intervals. Higher values indicate an increasing desire for social distance.

Figure 1

Figure 2. Changes in emotional reactions toward with schizophrenia or depression 1990–2020. Selected contrasts of multiple regression analyses with items of the Emotional Reaction toward Mental Illness Scale as criteria and period, vignette, interaction of period*vignette, age, and gender of vignette or respondents as predictors. The contrast estimates describe the change from 1990 to 2020 per vignette, bars indicate 95% confidence intervals. Higher values indicate an increase in emotional reactions.

Figure 2

Table 1. Differences in the desire for social distance from someone with schizophrenia or depression, 1990–2020.

Figure 3

Table 2. Differences in emotional reactions to someone with schizophrenia or depression 1990–2020.

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