Gender and attitudes towards people with schizophrenia. Results of a representative survey in the Federal Republic of Germany

Based on the observation that the course of schizophrenia appears to be more unfavourable in men than in women, we examined whether male sufferers are exposed to more negative and less positive emotional reactions and are met with a greater amount of rejection by their environment than their female counterparts. Data from a representative survey conducted in the 'old' Federal Republic of Germany during 1990 did not yield the expected gender difference with regard to emotional reactions. There were, however, some gender differences on the side of the respondents: Women expressed more feelings of anxiety and tended to show more prosocial reactions. Social distance tended to be slightly more pronounced towards men than towards women. This applied to both schizophrenia and alcoholism. The gender of the respondents, on the other hand, was of no importance for social distance.