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A study of psychiatrists' concepts of mental illness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

R. Harland*
Affiliation:
Division of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, UK
E. Antonova
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, UK
G. S. Owen
Affiliation:
Division of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, UK
M. Broome
Affiliation:
Section of Neuroimaging, Division of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, UK Health Sciences Research Institute, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
S. Landau
Affiliation:
Department of Biostatistics, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, UK
Q. Deeley
Affiliation:
Section of Brain Maturation, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, UK
R. Murray
Affiliation:
Division of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, UK
*
*Address for correspondence: Dr R. Harland, Division of Psychological Medicine, PO Box 63, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK. (Email: r.harland@iop.kcl.ac.uk)
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Abstract

Background

There are multiple models of mental illness that inform professional and lay understanding. Few studies have formally investigated psychiatrists' attitudes. We aimed to measure how a group of trainee psychiatrists understand familiar mental illnesses in terms of propositions drawn from different models.

Method

We used a questionnaire study of a sample of trainees from South London and Maudsley National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust designed to assess attitudes across eight models of mental illness (e.g. biological, psychodynamic) and four psychiatric disorders. Methods for analysing repeated measures and a principal components analysis (PCA) were used.

Results

No one model was endorsed by all respondents. Model endorsement varied with disorder. Attitudes to schizophrenia were expressed with the greatest conviction across models. Overall, the ‘biological’ model was the most strongly endorsed. The first three components of the PCA (interpreted as dimensions around which psychiatrists, as a group, understand mental illness) accounted for 56% of the variance. Each main component was classified in terms of its distinctive combination of statements from different models: PC1 33% biological versus non-biological; PC2 12% ‘eclectic’ (combining biological, behavioural, cognitive and spiritual models); and PC3 10% psychodynamic versus sociological.

Conclusions

Trainee psychiatrists are most committed to the biological model for schizophrenia, but in general are not exclusively committed to any one model. As a group, they organize their attitudes towards mental illness in terms of a biological/non-biological contrast, an ‘eclectic’ view and a psychodynamic/sociological contrast. Better understanding of how professional group membership influences attitudes may facilitate better multidisciplinary working.

Information

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008 The online version of this article is published within an Open Access environment subject to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/>. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use.
Figure 0

Table 1. Questionnaire items arranged by model (number of the item corresponds to the order of the item's appearance in the questionnaire)

Figure 1

Table 2. Summary of demographic and professional background of the respondents

Figure 2

Fig. 1. Standardized mean aggregate attitude scores by model and by disorder (possible range −8 to +8). Disorders: APD, antisocial personality disorder; D, depression; GAD, generalized anxiety disorder; S, schizophrenia. Models: Bio, biological; Beh, behavioural; Cog, cognitive; Real, social realist; Psyd, psychodynamic; Cons, social constructionist; Nihi, nihilist; Spir, spiritualist.

Figure 3

Table 3. Descriptive statistics for the aggregate attitude scores by model and by disorder (possible range 4–20)

Supplementary material: File

Harland Appendix

Harland Appendix

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