title: Emotional responses of patients with schizophrenia to their illness. Attitudes of social environment towards schizophrenes.
abstract: The aim of this paper was to define emotional responses of the patients with diagnosed schizophrenic psychosis to their illness. It was also intended to recognize the attitudes of patients' families and more distant social environment towards them. The study was conducted on 84 patients of the Neuropsychiatric Hospital, both hospitalized and ambulant, treated in Mental Outpatient Clinic and, simultaneously, taken care of by Social Self-Help Home "Misericordia". All the examined patients met the diagnostic criteria in accordance with ICD-10 for schizophrenic psychosis or schizophrenic disorder; all were in the period of symptomatic remission. The study was carried out in the years 2000-2001, using the distributed inquiry questionnaire technique. The supplementary source of information was case records of the examined patients. The predominant feelings of schizophrenics at the moment of becoming aware of having fallen ill with mental disease were fear (anxiety) and sorrow. The passage of time caused changes in emotional responses to mental illness. At the moment of the study the predominant feelings were the acceptance of illness and the sense of inferiority because of it. The sufferers of schizophrenia experienced mainly sympathy, acceptance of the illness and indifference in the environment outside the family circle.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Medical University of Lublin, Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Lublin.
authors.forename: Dorota
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zołnierczuk-Kieliszek
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zak
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006208:Halfway Houses; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011639:Public Opinion; D012563:Schizophrenia, Paranoid / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D012803:Sick Role; D012931:Social Environment