Stigmatisation of patients with schizophrenia. The influence of university courses on the attitudes of prospective psychologists and doctors

Background. Some studies revealed that psychiatrists have more negative attitudes than psychologists towards patients with schizophrenia. This raises the question of whether different models of the aetiology of schizophrenia and the amount of personal contact influence the attitudes of mental health professionals. Sample and methods. Explicit and implicit attitudes towards schizophrenia were assessed in medical and psychology students (n = 60 and n = 61, respectively) as well as their familiarity with the disorder and their subjective models of its aetiology. Results. Medical and psychology students showed a substantial level of negative attitudes. Personal contact was negatively associated with stereotypes among medical students and positively associated among psychology students. Positive attitudes were related to biogenetic causal beliefs among medical students and to psychosocial causal beliefs among psychology students. Conclusions. The results emphasise the need to adapt antistigma campaigns to target groups. They also indicate the superiority of a multidimensional aetiology over mono-causal aetiological models in reducing stigma.