BACKGROUND Individuals often avoid or delay seeking professional help for mental health problems. Stigma may be a key deterrent to help-seeking but this has not been reviewed systematically. Our systematic review addressed the overarching question: What is the impact of mental health-related stigma on help-seeking for mental health problems? Subquestions were: (a) What is the size and direction...

Purpose. We aimed to assess the influence of adverse events (AEs) of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) on perceived stigma of Bulgarian patients with epilepsy. Methods. Our study was based on questionnaires (Liverpool Adverse Events Profile (LAEP) and stigma scale), information from medical documentation, and an interview on clinical factors of 153 consecutive patients with epilepsy. Results. Perceive...

OBJECTIVES To assess the internal consistency and factor structure of the abridged Spanish version of the Berger HIV Stigma Scale (HSS-21), to provide evidence for its convergent and discriminant validity, and to describe perceived stigma in an urban population from northeast Mexico. METHODS Seventy-five HIV-positive men who have sex with men (MSM) were recruited. Participants answered the Sp...

OBJECTIVE Weight stigma is pervasive in the United States. We tested the hypothesis that stigma may be a mechanism through which obesity negatively affects self-reported health. Two studies examined whether perceived weight-based discrimination and concerns over weight stigma mediated the association between BMI and self-reported psychological health (Study 1) and physical health (Study 2). M...

PURPOSE There has been little research on whether the knowledge that adolescents with epilepsy (AWE) or their family have about the condition reduces their perception of stigma. In this study we determine the relation between AWE's perceived stigma of, and knowledge about, epilepsy and maternal perception of stigma. METHODS This was a cross-sectional multicenter study involving AWE and their ...

AIMS This study provides a systematic review of existing research that has empirically evaluated interventions designed to reduce stigma related to substance use disorders. METHODS A comprehensive review of electronic databases was conducted to identify evaluations of substance use disorder related stigma interventions. Studies that met inclusion criteria were synthesized and assessed using s...

BACKGROUND It has been postulated that the effects of the stigma of mental illness on the psychological well-being of patients is mediated through internalization of the stigma. On the other hand, there is reason to suppose that simple awareness of public stigma could also have an impact to the extent that an individual is aware of being ill. AIM To investigate whether internalization of the ...

Stigmatizing beliefs about mental illness can be a daily struggle for people with schizophrenia. While investigations into the impact of internalizing stigma on negative symptoms have yielded mixed results, resistance to stigmatizing beliefs has received little attention. In this study, we examined the linkage between internalized stigma, stigma resistance, negative symptoms, and social power, ...

Background High levels of self-stigma are associated with a range of adverse mental health, treatment, and functional outcomes. This prospective study examined the effects of an electronic mental health stigma reduction intervention on self-stigma (self-blame, shame, and help-seeking inhibition) among male construction workers in Australia. Method Male construction workers (N = 682) were rand...