Dr. Seikhoo Bishnoi
BACKGROUND Stigma associated with mental illnesses is one of the most significant challenges faced by a psychiatrist. It can interfere not only with the treatment acceptance and compliance, but also modify the presentations of mental disorders. MATERIALS AND METHODS Methodology- The current work is a crossectional study to compare and contrast the stigma experienced by patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder and somatization disorder and to find, if there is any association between stigma scores and somatic symptom expression. RESULTS Mean stigma scores derived from EMIC in patients of depression were 51.25 (±13.9) while for somatization were 14.14 (±5.51), which were statistically significant revealing stigma in depressive patients was much higher. CONCLUSION We conclude that stigma levels were significantly higher in patients with MDD than somatization disorder and higher stigma scores were associated with more severe depressive symptoms in rural population.
