Ethical Considerations and Countermeasure Analysis of Public Mental Disorders Stigma in China / 中国医学伦理学

ABSTRACT

Discrimination against patients with mental disorders and the resulting stigma will not only affect patients’ medical treatment, but also bring about community isolation and lack of resources. Mental health problems have become a major public health problem and a prominent social problem. From the perspective of bioethics, the existence of public mental disorders stigma violates the principles of justice and respect. This paper quantitatively described the status quo of public mental disorders stigma in China, and explored its influencing factors through factor analysis and binary logistic regression analysis. The public stigma of mental disorders score was (54.64±11.048). Factor analysis extracted 4 common factors, namely isolation, pain, contact, and empathy, with a cumulative explained variance of 68.948%. The results showed that age and contact history were the main factors affecting the public stigma of mental disorders. It is recommended to reduce discrimination by enhancing understanding and improving empathy. Specifically, it is to implement the personal liability for discrimination through ethical regulation and legal construction, and strengthen the concept of a community of shared future for mankind by creating a tolerant social atmosphere, so as to achieve an appropriate balance between public safety and individual rights and interests.