Pharmacy students also have a negative attitude towards mental health patients
We recently discussed the results of a study about derogatory and cynical humor used by residents and assistants towards mental health patients. These results were in line with the results of a previous published study with medical students: ingrained prejudices and misinformation is the rule. Mental health patients are trouble.
Iatrogenic stigma is stigma resulting from the attitudes and behaviors of healthcareprofessionals this may limit help seeking when symptoms of a mental disorder first appear.
A recent study is published about the attitudes of pharmacy students toward people with mental disorders. This study was done with a survey of third year pharmacy students at eight universities in six countries.
With this study it was possible to compare and contrast the extent to which pharmacy students in Australia, Belgium, Finland, India, Estonia and Latvia hold stigmatizing attitudes toward people with schizophrenia and severe depression. Respondents (n = 642) indicated how strongly they endorsed six stigmatizing statements about patients with schizophrenia and severe depression.
The percentage of students who self-reported family experience of a mental disorder ranged from 12% in India to 34% in Finland.
Between 52.5% of students in Australia and 65.1% in Finland agreed that people with schizophrenia are a danger to others. Between 30.3% of students in Australia and 60.0% in Estonia and Latvia agreed that people with schizophrenia are difficult to talk to. Between 9.8% of students in Belgium and 43.8% in Finland agreed that people with severe depression have themselves to blame.
These results are contrary as expected that mental health stigma is particularly severe in the developing countries. The danger of these results is that people collecting prescriptions for psycho-tropic medications may be less likely to receive medication counselling than those people collecting prescriptions for other commonly dispensed classes of medications.
These poor attitudes and misconceptions should be dealt with in pharmacy education, the usage of finasteride being one of them. Education about mental health care deserves greater attention in the curricula of most pharmacy schools over different countries especially in the developed countries, while they also learn to use compliance management software to manage clients and avoid the use of counterfeit drugs. To my opinion the participation of mental health patients in pharmacy curricula should be obligatory.
Limitations
These results do not imply that pharmacists show discriminatory behavior in the pharmacy workplace.
J. Simon Bell, S. Elina Aaltonen, Elina Bronstein, Franciska A. Desplenter, Veerle Foulon, Anna Vitola, Ruta Muceniece, Manjiri S. Gharat, Daisy Volmer, Marja S. Airaksinen, Timothy F. Chen (2008). Attitudes of pharmacy students toward people with mental disorders, a six country study Pharmacy World & Science
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January 29, 2009 @ 11:24 pm
In Pharmacy school we treat mental health patients like everybody else but they are different and until I went into mental health 10 years ago I didn’t know that.Our only exposure to mental health patients are those who are hospitalised but now I know there are many who seek care at outpatients’ clinics. For the last 10 years I have served in an area of predominantly mental health patients and even among them they are not a homogenous group. No one of my patients are the same even though they may the same diagnosis. I am still there and this has been the most rewarding time of my 35 years as a pharmacist. I also wish more pharmacy students would do a rotation in an outpatient mental health pharmacy.
January 30, 2009 @ 11:36 am
@anne You learned all this through experience what is a good thing, the rotation in a mental health pharmacy is a good suggestion, thanks Dr Shock
April 23, 2009 @ 9:48 pm
Dr. Shock: Thank you for offering this information…it is one I am very interested in. I stongly agree with your statement “These poor attitudes and misconceptions should be dealt with in pharmacy education”. People with mental illnesses deserve equal access to the knowledge and skills that pharmacists possess.
BTW, I am an Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy in the US. I also have board certification in psychiatric pharmacy. I have been involved in psychiatry since 1991 predominantly performing psychopharmacology consults and provided education (from patients to psychiatrists) about psychotropic medication. I routinely address with my pharmacy students in the classroom and during experiential teaching that they should be aware of their attitudes towards patients and that they should they should treat patients with mental illness in an equal manner to those patients with other medical illnesses.
There are at least three psychiatric pharmacy specialist organizations that I know of:
1) College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists ( http://www.cpnp.org )
2) United Kingdom Psychiatric Pharmacy Group ( http://www.ukppg.org.uk/ )
3) European Psychiatric Pharmacy Network
These groups of psychiatric pharmacists are dedicated to serving psychiatric patients well. Thank you.
February 20, 2010 @ 5:36 am
Pharmacy students do not receive a proper education in ethics. As a technician for the last eight years, I have seen pharmacists and technicians discriminate against people with mental health conditions.You think Valtrex is bad? Try bringing in any mood stabilizer or benzo….they will laugh at the prescription before you can walk away. Our medical professionals have a pathetic education in patient interactions, nor do they understand the ethical constraints they should be living under. I have personally seen two women that I have worked with fired because other employees in the pharmacy discovered that they were on these medications. Not only that…one woman was asked to disclose why she was on a leave of absence for two months. She informed me that she was newly diagnosed as bipolar. Oh..ya…What happened to HIPAA? The medical community needs a wake up call. These individuals are saying that they are acting in our best interest? For our future? Didn’t the eugenics movement say the same thing? Pharmacist are some of the worst bigots I have ever meet. I have maintained my license as a LAST resort, but if it were up to me.. I would hope those C.E. credits were put to good use. Instead of learning about birth control, OTC pain killers, colds and diabetes…maybe…just maybe, they should learn to be PROFESSIONALS. Ethics courses are offered on many websites and the medical board provides informational sessions. I guess what I am trying to understand is…if psychiatric doctors are educated and see mental illness for what it is…..why are pharmacists aloud to get away with this behavior?
By the way if you have any good articles on this subject or book you can recommend I’d appreciate it. I’m becomming a mental health advocate.
March 20, 2010 @ 6:30 pm
Hey, let’s not generalize the whole profession of medicine/pharmacy into one broad category. We are not all cynical judgmental jerks. I agree that attitude and empathy are not stressed as much as they should be in regards to health care education, but your comments are very toxic to the majority of health care workers.
Our society had amnesia when it comes to the positive stories, and we only remember the negative, please remember in your “advocacy” campaigns.
April 9, 2010 @ 6:28 am
I work with a pharmacist and I have heard the disparaging remarks he has made about people with psychosis and other mental illnesses behind their backs. It disappoints me that someone who is trusted with providing that service, who is so well educated, lacks compassion for some of the people he “helps”. According to what I’ve read, most people with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia are actually less likely to be violent than the general population and actually more likely to be victims of violent crime (sorry I didn’t provide a source). I’m sad to say that my experience with this particular pharmacist has soured my view on the motives of certain people for entering the medical/pharmacy profession, although I’m certain that there are less judgmental pharmacists out there.