Affiliations 

  • 1 Institute of Mental Health, Peking University Sixth Hospital, Beijing, China
  • 2 Department of Psychiatry, Huai'an No.3 People's Hospital, Jiangsu, China
  • 3 Department of Epidemiology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China
  • 4 Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Muang, Thailand
  • 5 Department of Psychiatry, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Asian Medical Center, Seoul, South Korea
  • 6 Department of Psychological Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 7 Department of Psychiatry, Chang Gung Medical Center and Chang Gung University, Tao-Yuan, Taiwan
  • 8 Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University, Songkhla, Thailand
  • 9 Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Inha University Hospital, Incheon, South Korea
  • 10 Division of Mood Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
  • 11 Institute of Mental Health, Woodbridge Hospital, Singapore, Singapore
  • 12 Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Mackay Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 13 North West Specialist Centre, Everton Park, QLD, Australia
  • 14 Singapore Clinical Research Institute, Singapore, Singapore
  • 15 Department of Psychiatry, Shanxi Dayi Hospital, Taiyuan, China
Front Psychiatry, 2019;10:321.
PMID: 31156476 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00321

Abstract

Stigma of major depressive disorder (MDD) is an important public health problem. This study aimed to examine the level of perceived stigma and its associated factors in MDD patients in five Asian countries, including China, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. A total of 547 outpatients with MDD were included from Asian countries. We used the stigma scale of the Explanatory Model Interview Catalogue (EMIC) to assess stigma. The Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), Symptoms Checklist 90-Revised (SCL-90-R), Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS), 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) were used to assess symptoms, clinical features, functional impairment, health status, and social support. The stigma scores of patients under 55 years old were significantly higher than those equal to or greater than 55 years old (P < 0.001). The stigma scores exhibited significant negative correlation with age; MSPSS scores of family, friends, and others; and SF-36 subscale of mental health, but significant positive correlation with MADRS, FSS, SDS, and SCL-90-R subscale scores of depression, interpersonal sensitivity, obsession-compulsion, psychoticism, and somatization. Multivariate regression analysis revealed that age, SCL-90-R interpersonal sensitivity, obsession-compulsion, psychoticism, MSPSS scores of friends and others, and SF-36 of mental health were significantly associated with the level of perceived stigma. These findings suggest that MDD patients who are young, have a high degree of interpersonal sensitivity and psychoticism, have low health-related quality of life, and have low social support are the target population for stigma interventions in Asia.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.