ABSTRACT
Background: Stigma towards adults with mental illness is a longstanding and widespread phenomenon. Stigmatizing attitudes are prevalent not only among the general population but also among doctors. Negative stereotyping of people with mental illness (PMI) leads to prejudice and discrimination, affecting all aspects of their medical care and well-being. The present study attempted to explore stigmatizing attitudes among doctors towards PMI.Methods: The research was observational and cross-sectional in design carried out on doctors in a medical college. Socio-demographic data including field of specialization, experience, and academic post were recorded. The community attitudes towards mental illness (CAMI) and social distance scale were administered. Social desirability bias was corrected for by using the Marlowe-Crowne social desirability scale.Results: Around 54 doctors from the specializations of medicine (n=24), surgery (n=19), and non-clinical fields (n=11) participated. We found no significant differences in attitudes towards mentally ill and social distance between medical specializations (p-values >0.05) even after adjusting for the effects of social desirability bias. Years of specialization experience (p=0.037) and having a family member or close friend with mental illness (p=0.012) were significantly associated with higher scores in the community mental health ideology sub-scale of CAMI. Higher social restrictiveness (p=0.014) and lower community mental health ideology (p=0.008) were associated with greater social distance from PMI.Conclusions: Doctors are not immune to biases and stigmatizing attitudes towards PMI. These attitudes are present across all fields of medical specialization and must be addressed by mental health professionals to ensure optimal care of this vulnerable population.
ABSTRACT
Background: Problematic Internet use (PIU) has become a global social issue and can be regarded as an individual’s inability to control Internet usage which results in negative impact in daily life. Individuals who spent more time on surfing the Internet are likely to sleep late night and this further increases the level of tiredness. The present study was commenced to determine relationship between Internet uses and sleep patterns among medical college students. Methods: The present study was commenced among 149 undergraduate students studying at Sikkim Manipal Medical College. The severity of addiction to Internet was measured using Young’s Internet addiction test. Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) which consists of subjective sleepiness scale comprising of eight items was used to measure daytime sleepiness. Significance of association of Internet addiction and sleep disturbance was done by Fisher’s 2 sample t- test and a value of less than 0.05 was considered as significant value. Results: The proportions of boys who were pathological Internet addicts (moderate to severe) were 9.5%. For girls, the corresponding proportions were 7.5%. The prevalence of Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) was 20.1%. This study estimated the prevalence of pathological Internet using was 8.05%. Present study found an association between problematic Internet use and excessive daytime sleepiness. The association was statistically significant (p= 0.016). Conclusion: The present study shows that Internet overuse was strongly associated with EDS and other sleep problems in adolescents. Because the number of Internet addicts will continue to grow, clinicians should consider examining Internet addiction in adolescent cases of EDS.