Attitude Towards Mental Illness in Southeastern Nigeria: The Contradictions of a Communitarian Culture

Epidemiological patterns of mental disorders and stigma in a community household survey in urban slum and rural settings in Kenya

“…While several studies claim that men tend to have more negative opinions towards mental illness, evidence on the association between gender and opinion remains inconsistent (Dietrich, 2006; Ikwuka et al, 2016; Ng & Chan, 2000). The current findings showed no gender differences in any of the subscales, contrasting with the trend in other study concerning mental illness stigma in Kenya, which found that primary school boys show stronger stigmatizing beliefs than girls (Ndetei et al, 2016).…”

“…Of note was a 2011 multi-country study that compared different regions and ethnic groups, and showed large variation in beliefs about mental disorders and attitudes towards people with mental illness, both between and within countries (Dietrich, 2006). Factors such as age, religion and amount of mental health knowledge could complicate efforts to find evidence for the differences between rural and urban areas, which has been inconsistent (Ikwuka et al, 2016). Moreover, while establishing an association between geographic location and stigma is useful, future research should focus on factors that underlie or cause this urban/rural difference, including belief systems.…”

“…Mental health stigma is socially constructed, its manifestation being dependent on context and cultural norms (Rao & Valencia-Garcia, 2014; Yang et al, 2007). Most studies on stigma and its impacts have been done in developed countries (World Health Organization (WHO), 2008) with few in developing countries (Wirth & Bodenhausen, 2008) where it has been shown that culture has an influence on the experience, expression and determinants of stigma (Ikwuka et al, 2016) and where also perceived mental illness stigma was found to be higher than in developed countries (Alonso et al, 2008), Kenya included (Walton, Matheson, Webster, Kotadia, & Kapoor, 2016). Our study provides an overview of mental illness prevalence in community settings (rural and urban) in Kenya and compares attitudes and stigma towards persons with mental illness in urban and rural settings.…”

Non-Mental Health Workers’ Attitudes and Perceptions Towards People with Mental Illness in a Tertiary Health Facility in Damaturu, North East Nigeria

“…This belief is due to societal attribution of violent tendencies by people with mental illness [16]. This stigmatizing attitude expressed by health workers towards people with mental illness may lead to internalized self dislike and behaviours that exacerbates the burden of the illness [17] [20]. Despite the good understanding of the biopsychosocial cause of mental illness as reported by the respondents, there was prominent negative attitudes observed in this study, this is contrary to the finding of Madianos et al [18] where they reported good knowledge positively influences attitudes towards mental illness.…”

Prevention of the Stigma of Mental Disorders in the Community

“…Some of studies state that culture influences experience, expression and the determinants of stigma and the effectiveness of the various approaches to reducing stigma. A meaningful intervention to combat stigma must, therefore, consider the cultural context (Ikwuka et al, 2016). An INDIGO schizophrenia study involved 732 individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia in 27 countries where 47% of participants experienced discrimination when making or maintaining friends, 43% experienced discrimination from their family members and 29% found keeping work to be difficult.…”