Attitudes and Beliefs towards Mental Disorders

Abstract

This research aimed to identify beliefs and attitudes of the relatives of psychiatric patients and university students' toward mental illness through their knowledge of its causes, symptoms, methods of treatment and how to deal with it. And to find out the differences and similarities in beliefs and attitudes of the relatives of patients and university students related with some factors such as the level of education, renting and marriage .To achieve this objective, the scale of WHO about the beliefs and attitudes towards the five common mental disorders was used: Mental retardation, epilepsy, acute psychosis, depression and schizophrenia. The sample consisted of (100) people divided into two groups, the first were (50) relatives of psychiatric patients and the second were (50) Hadramout University students. The research concluded that there is an agreement and convergence of beliefs and attitudes of the two groups toward the causes of acute psychosis , depression and kind of psychotherapy and the two groups showed differences in determining the causes and treatment of mental retardation and epilepsy. Both groups showed negative attitudes and believes toward marriage, work and renting with psychiatric patient. Based on the results of the research, a number of recommendations have been set and the research has raised many problems that helped to shape those beliefs and negative attitudes towards mental illness. Finally, the researcher prompted to develop a number of proposals to address them in the future.