Comparing stigmatising attitudes towards people with substance use disorders between the general public, GPs, mental health and addiction specialists and clients

Abstract

The general public and GPs expressed more social distance and were more negative in their expectations about rehabilitation opportunities, compared to mental health and addiction specialists and clients. Although stigmatising attitudes were prevalent across all groups, no striking differences were found between stakeholders.

Good Psychometric Properties of the Addiction Version of the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire for Health Care Professionals

“…Such an instrument is highly needed given the enormous variation in perceptions of addiction and its possible relationship with attitude and stigma. Since patients with addiction often perceive stigma and negative attitudes, also from health care professionals [7, 45], instruments that can help identify potential factors that may contribute to such stigma, like illness perceptions, are of great relevance. Given its acceptable psychometric properties, the IPQ-A may be such an instrument.…”

Health Services Use Among Jailed Women with Alcohol Use Disorders

“…Suboptimal health care for persons using drugs may be explained by health professionals’ negative attitudes toward these patients, as shown by a systematic review and surveys assessing stigma in this context. 53–54 …”

Same clinic, different conceptions: Drug users’ and healthcare professionals’ perceptions of how stigma may affect clinical care

“…Corker et al () concluded that family or friends were affected by anti‐stigma campaigns more than health professionals, and called for anti‐stigma interventions targeted to specific groups. Van Boekel, Brouwers, Van Weeghel, and Garretsen () compared members of the general public, general practitioners, mental health and addiction specialists, and clients in drug treatments. Across several stigma‐related variables, members of the general public held the most negative views, followed by both groups of health professionals, with clients holding the most positive attitudes.…”

“…In addition, biological models often undergird attributions to noncontrollable causes and such models heighten a sense of discrete boundaries between stigmatized groups and the nonstigmatized, which in turn engender prejudice (e.g., Corrigan et al, ; Haslam & Levy, ; Prentice & Miller, ). Consequently, we aimed to assess recent claims that attribution theory describes stigma in this domain well (Van Boekel et al, ).…”

“…As noted above, these claims occur within a context of care in which schemas about controllability are more complex than attribution theory describes. We drew on that fact in constructing more ecological and complex vignettes here than in Van Boekel et al ().…”