Search

Introduction Mental health-related stigma occurs not only within the public community but is also an issue among healthcare professionals. The relationship between national culture and provider stigma remains yet to be empirically attested. Objectives We performed a cross-sectional multicentre study across 32 European countries to investigate the attitudes of psychiatrists towards patients with mental health problems. We aimed to examine the relationship of attitude with country-specific indicators. Methods We measured stigmatizing attitudes using the Opening Minds Stigma Scale for Health Care Providers (OMS-HC) within an online survey among specialists and trainees in general adult, child and adolescent psychiatry. Its total score was correlated with the Human Development Index (HDI), the Democracy Index (DI), the Social Progress Index (SPI), the number of psychiatrists per 100,000 people, and the Hofstede dimensions. Latent class analysis was done to find subgroups of countries according to the stigmatizing attitudes of psychiatrists and the six Hofstede dimensions. Results Altogether, n=4245 participants completed the survey. The total score of the OMS-HC significantly correlated with the long-term orientation (r=0.453, p=0.015) and indulgence dimensions (r=-0.629, p

Introduction Since the literature investigating the stigmatising attitudes of psychiatrists is scarce, this is the first study which examines the phenomena across Europe. The Opening Minds Stigma Scale for Health Care Providers (OMS-HC) is a widely used questionnaire to measure stigma in healthcare providers towards people with mental illness, although it has not been validated in many European countries. Objectives A cross-sectional, observational, multi-centre study was conducted in 32 European countries to investigate the attitudes towards patients among specialists and trainees in general adult and child psychiatry. In order to be able to compare stigma scores across cultures, we aimed to calculate measurement invariance. Methods An internet-based, anonymous survey was distributed in the participating countries, which was completed by n=4245 psychiatrists. The factor structure of the scale was investigated by using separate confirmatory factor analyses for each country. The cross-cultural validation was based on multigroup confirmatory factor analyses. Results When country data were analysed separately, the three dimensions of the OMS-HC were confirmed, and the bifactor model showed the best model fit. However, in some countries, a few items were found to be weak. The attitudes towards patients seemed favourable since stigma scores were less than half of the reachable maximum. Results allowed comparison to be made between stigma scores in different countries and subgroups. Conclusions This international cooperation has led to the cross-cultural validation of the OMS-HC on a large sample of practicing psychiatrists. The results will be useful in the evaluation of future anti-stigma interventions and will contribute to the knowledge of stigma. Disclosure No significant relationships.

Introduction Many people think that people with mental disorders might be dangerous or unpredictable. These patients face various sources of disadvantages and experience discrimination in job interviews, in education, and housing. Mental health-related stigma occurs not only within the public community, it is a growing issue among professionals as well. Our study is the first that investigates the stigmatising attitude of psychiatrists across Europe. Objectives We designed a cross-sectional, observational, multi-centre, international study of 33 European countries to investigate the attitude towards patients 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 stigmatising attitude by using the local version of the Opening Minds Stigma Scale for Health Care Providers. Data gathering started in July this year and will continue until December 2020. Results This study will be the first to describe the stigmatising attitude of psychiatric practitioners across Europe from their perspectives. Conclusions The study will contribute to knowledge of gaps in stigmatising attitude towards people with mental health problems and will provide with new directions in anti-stigma interventions. Disclosure No significant relationships.

Background: Mental health-related stigma occurs among the public and professionals alike. The lived experience of mental illness has been linked to less stigmatising attitudes. However, data on psychiatrists and the relationship between stigmatising attitudes and psychotherapeutic activity or case discussion groups remains scarce., Methods: A cross-sectional multicentre study was performed in 32 European countries to investigate the lived experiences and attitudes of psychiatrists toward patients with mental illness as well as the relationship between stigma, psychosocial and professional factors. The self-reported, anonymous, internet-based Opening Minds Stigma Scale for Health Care Providers was used to measure the stigmatising attitudes. The survey was translated into the local language of each participating country. All participants were practising specialists and trainees in general adult or child and adolescent psychiatry. The study took place between 2nd October, 2019 and 9th July, 2021 and was preregistered at ClinicalTrial.gov (NCT04644978)., Findings: A total of 4245 psychiatrists completed the survey. The majority, 2797 (66%), had completed training in psychiatry, and 3320 (78%) worked in adult psychiatry. The final regression model showed that across European countries more favourable attitudes toward people with mental illness were statistically significantly associated with the lived experience of participants (including seeking help for their own mental health conditions (d = -0.92, 95% confidence interval (CI) = -1.68 to -0.15, p = 0.019), receiving medical treatment for a mental illness (d = -0.88, 95% CI = -1.71 to -0.04, p = 0.040), as well as having a friend or a family member similarly affected (d = -0.68, 95% CI = -1.14 to -0.22, p = 0.004)), being surrounded by colleagues who are less stigmatising (d = -0.98, 95% CI = -1.26 to -0.70, p < 0.001), providing psychotherapy to patients (d = -1.14, 95% CI = -1.63 to -0.65 p < 0.001), and being open to (d = -1.69, 95% CI = -2.53 to -0.85, p < 0.001) and actively participating in (d = -0.94, 95% CI = -1.45 to -0.42, p < 0.001) case discussion, supervision, or Balint groups., Interpretation: Our study highlights the importance of psychotherapy training, supervision, case discussions and Balint groups in reducing the stigmatising attitudes of psychiatrists toward patients. As the findings represent cross-national predictors, Europe-wide policy interventions, national psychiatric education systems and the management of psychiatric institutions should take these findings into consideration., Funding: National Youth Talent Award (Ministry of Human Resources, Hungary, (NTP-NFTÖ-20-B-0134). All authors received no funding for their contribution., Competing Interests: DŐ received the National Youth Talent Award in 2020 and 2021 (Ministry of Human Resources, Hungary, (NTP-NFTÖ-20-B-0134 and NTP-NFTÖ-21-B-0280) that covered the membership fee for one year of the online survey platform, and the expenses of the dissemination of the results at international congresses. She received grants from the Fulbright Program in 2022, the Semmelweis 250+ Excellence PhD Scholarship in 2023 and the New National Excellence Program in 2023 (ÚNKP-23-III-2). She received support for travel from Kerpel-Fronius Talent Support Program of Semmelweis University in 2022 and 2023 (EFOP-3.6.3-VEKOP-16-2017-00009). She is a medical Secretariat at the Hungarian Psychiatric Association. The article processing charge is covered by the Semmelweis University. SMa received a grant to attend the World Congress of Psychiatry (WPA) in 2022 and 2023 from the World Psychiatric Association. She is the Vice-chair of Psychiatric trainees committee (2020–2021) of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (UK). MW is the past president of the European Federation of Psychaitric Trainees. He is a Co-president of the Verband der Schweizerischen Assistenz—und Oberarzte (Association of Swiss Assistant and Senior Physicians) Section Thuragu. SRó received support from The Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church for the statistical analyses carried out (Grant No. 20754B800). Other authors declare no competing financial interests., (© 2023 The Author(s).)

Aims: To measure the stigma of healthcare providers toward people suffering from mental illness, the Opening Minds Stigma Scale for Health Care Providers (OMS-HC) is a commonly applied instrument. However, this scale has not been thoroughly validated in many European countries, its psychometric properties are still unknown and data on practicing psychiatrists is lacking. Therefore, this multicenter study aimed to assess the psychometric characteristics of the 15-item OMS-HC in trainees and specialists in adult and child psychiatry in 32 countries across Europe., Materials and Methods: The OMS-HC was conducted as an anonymous online survey and sent via Email to European adult and child psychiatrists. Parallel analysis was used to estimate the number of OMS-HC dimensions. Separate for each country, the bifactor ESEM, a bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling approach, was applied to investigate the factor structure of the scale. Cross-cultural validation was done based on multigroup confirmatory factor analyses and reliability measures., Results: A total of 4,245 practitioners were included, 2,826 (67%) female, 1,389 (33%) male. The majority (66%) of participants were specialists, with 78% working in adult psychiatry. When country data were analyzed separately, the bifactor model (higher-order factor solution with a general factor and three specific factors) showed the best model fit (for the total sample χ 2 /df = 9.760, RMSEA = 0.045 (0.042-0.049), CFI = 0.981; TLI = 0.960, WRMR = 1.200). The average proportion of variance explained by the general factor was high (ECV = 0.682). This suggests that the aspects of 'attitude,' 'disclosure and help-seeking,' and 'social distance' could be treated as a single dimension of stigma. Among the specific factors, the 'disclosure and help-seeking' factor explained a considerable unique proportion of variance in the observed scores., Conclusion: This international study has led to cross-cultural analysis of the OMS-HC on a large sample of practicing psychiatrists. The bifactor structure displayed the best overall model fit in each country. Rather than using the subscales, we recommend the total score to quantify the overall stigmatizing attitudes. Further studies are required to strengthen our findings in countries where the proposed model was found to be weak., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Őri, Szocsics, Molnár, Bankovska Motlova, Kazakova, Mörkl, Wallies, Abdulhakim, Boivin, Bruna, Cabacos, Carbone, Dashi, Grech, Greguras, Ivanovic, Guevara, Kakar, Kotsis, Klinkby, Maslak, Matheiken, Mirkovic, Nechepurenko, Panayi, Pereira, Pomarol-Clotet, Raaj, Rus Prelog, Soler-Vidal, Strumila, Schuster, Kisand, Hargi, Ahmadova, Vircik, Yilmaz Kafali, Grinko, Győrffy and Rózsa.)