Journal of Qualitative Research in Health Sciences

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 1. Professor, Department of Nursing and Midwifery Care Research, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran Mashhad, Iran

2 2. Ph.D. Student in Nursing, Department of Nursing and Midwifery, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

3 Assistant Professor, Department of Nursing, Mashhad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mashhad, Iran

Abstract

Introduction: Psychiatric disorders are among the most stigmatizing disorders. Self-stigma will have desperate consequences for people such as patients who consider themselves worthless since they belong to a group that most people have negative feelings about. The present study was designed and conducted to better understand the experiences of patients with psychiatric disorders on self-stigma.
Methods: This study, performed on 12 psychiatric patients in 2017, was a hermeneutic phenomenological research. The patients were selected based on purposive sampling method and unstructured interviews were used for data collection. According to the method developed by Diekelmann, a hermeneutic approach was used to analyze the data. Moreover, to determine the validity of the study, the criteria provided by Guba and Lincoln were utilized.
Results: "Broken Personality" was identified as the main theme of the phenomenon and included seven subthemes: "Injured feelings", "Like wax in the hands of others," "Scandalous symptoms of disease," "Coming from another land," "Stranger to oneself", "Degradation of the position", and "Shame of diagnosis".
Conclusion: The results of this study emphasized the necessity to develop comprehensive and appropriate interventions to combat and prevent self-stigma in patients with psychiatric disorders.

Keywords

  1. Koschorke M, Padmavati R, Kumar S, Cohen A, Weiss HA, Chatterjee S, et al. Experiences of stigma and discrimination faced by family caregivers of people with schizophrenia in India. Soc Sci Med 2017; 178:66-77. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.01.061.
  2. Han JH, Kim CK. Comparisons of the clinical variables between high and low self-stigma group in the outpatients with schizophrenia. Korean Journal of Schizophrenia Research 2018; 21(1):28-36. doi:10.16946/kjsr.2018.21.1.28.
  3. Clemente AS, Santos WJ, Nicolato R, Firmo JO. Stigma related to bipolar disorder in the perception of psychiatrists from Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Cad Saude Publica 2017; 33(6):e00050016. doi:10.1590/0102-311X00050016.
  4. Sayre J. The patient’s diagnosis: explanatory models of mental illness. Qual Health Res 2000; 10(1):71-83. doi:10.1177/104973200129118255.
  5. Corrigan PW, Larson JE, Hautamaki J, Matthews A, Kuwabara S, Rafacz J, et al. What lessons do coming out as gay men or lesbians have for people stigmatized by mental illness? Community Ment Health J 2009; 45(5):366-74. doi:10.1007/s10597-009-9187-6.
  6. Trindade IA, Duarte J, Ferreira C, Coutinho M, Pinto‐Gouveia J. The impact of illness‐related shame on psychological health and social relationships: Testing a mediational model in students with chronic illness. Clin Psychol Psychother 2018; 25(3):408-14. doi:10.1002/ cpp.2175.
  7. Dolezal L. The phenomenology of shame in the clinical encounter. Med Health Care Philos 2015; 18(4):567-76. doi:10.1007/s11019-015-9654-5.
  8. Gough B, Lyons A. The future of qualitative research in psychology: accentuating the positive. Integr Psychol Behav Sci 2016; 50(2):234-43. doi:10.1007/s12124-015-9320-8.
  9. Mohammadi F, Rakhshan M, Molazem Z, Zareh N, Gillespie M. Parents’ perspectives on family violence against children with autism. Arch Iran Med 2019; 22(9):505-10.
  10. Van Der Schaaf A, Langendijk JA, Fiorino C, Rancati T. Embracing phenomenological approaches to normal tissue complication probability modeling: a question of method. International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics 2015; 91(3):468-71. doi:10.1016/j.ijrobp.2014.10.017
  11. De Rose BS. The latino immigrants’ experience in obtaining required childhood vaccinations. J Transcult Nurs 2018; 29(4):363-8. doi:10.1177/1043659617732126.
  12. Fox AB, Earnshaw VA, Taverna EC, Vogt D. Conceptualizing and measuring mental illness stigma: The mental illness stigma framework and critical review of measures. Stigma Health 2018; 3(4):348-76. doi:10.1037/sah0000104.
  13. Mestdagh A, Hansen B. Stigma in patients with schizophrenia receiving community mental health care: a review of qualitative studies. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 2014; 49 (1):79-87. doi: 10.1007/s00127-013-0729-4.
  14. Mannarini S, Rossi A. Assessing mental illness stigma: a complex issue. Front Psychol 2018; 9:2722. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02722.
  15. Lundberg B, Lundqvis P, Hansson L, Wentz E, Sivberg B. Experiences of rejection by mental health patients-A qualitative study. Health 2013; 5(10):1553-60. doi:10.4236/health.2013.510211.
  16. Park K, MinHwa L, Seo M. The impact of self-stigma on self-esteem among persons with different mental disorders. Int J Soc Psychiatry 2019; 65(7-8):558-65. doi:10.1177/0020764019867352.
  17. Poreddi V, Thimmaiah R, Pashupu DR, Ramachandra, Badamath S. Undergraduate nursing students’ attitudes towards mental illness: implications for specific academic education. Indian J Psychol Med 2014; 36(4):368-72. doi: 10.4103/0253-7176.140701.