Examining whether Medical Students Demonstrate Stigmatized Attitudes based on Cultural Background of Alcohol Dependent Patients

Background

The consumption of alcohol or drugs, and dependence do exist in the Middle East despite the religious, social and cultural constraints. Stigma seems to exist in every area of life for individuals with mental illness and represents a major barrier to effective rehabilitation and reintegration of these patients. In the Middle Eastern cultures, negative attitudes toward patients with mental illnesses are common. However, there is a lack of studies that investigate the attitudes of professionals towards alcohol dependent patients.

Purpose

1) Demonstrate a summary of the stigma literature relative to cultural influences on stigmatized attitude toward alcohol-dependent patients.

2) Demonstrate results of qualitative pilot study of medical students response to vignettes of alcohol-dependent patients of different cultural backgrounds.

Methods

Systemic review of major databases to represent data from Middle Eastern countries. Focus group and cognitive interviewing with medical students from the Middle East to assess whether medical students demonstrate stigmatized attitudes based on cultural background of alcohol dependent patients.

Findings

1) Preliminary findings indicate that little research has been done on the Middle Eastern countries on stigmatized attitude toward alcohol dependent patients.

2) Medical students have reactions indicative of stigmatizing attitudes when presented with cases depicting an Arab-Muslims with alcohol use disorders, compared to less stigma is associated with European depicted patients.

Interpretation

Medical students believe that alcohol-dependence is a disease and alcohol-dependents are not necessarily come from the lower socio-economic strata of society. Although they believe that the alcohol-dependent is not able to control his drinking behavior, they believe that most alcoholics do, and can be helped to, recover from alcohol-dependence.