title: Attitudes towards the people with mental illness: comparison between Czech medical doctors and general population.
abstract: Stigma among health care professionals is detrimental to the life of those with mental health problems. In the region of post-communist Europe, the level of stigma among health care providers remains understudied. We aimed to compare attitudes towards people with mental illness between Czech medical doctors and the general population.
  
  
  
  The Community Attitudes towards Mentally Ill (CAMI) scale was used to measure stigmatizing attitudes among a nationally representative sample of (1) adults residing in the Czech Republic (n = 1810) and (2) Czech medical doctors (n = 1200). Descriptive statistics and multivariable linear regression were used to assess differences between both samples.
  
  
  
  Compared to the general adult population in the Czech Republic, Czech medical doctors demonstrated less stigmatizing attitudes toward people with mental illness in 26 of the 27 CAMI items as well as in the total CAMI score. Medical doctors, however, were more likely to consider mental hospitals as an up-to-date method of treating people with mental illness.
  
  
  
  Our findings demonstrate more favourable attitudes towards people with mental illness among Czech medical doctors when compared to the Czech general population. Stigma, however, is high among both these groups.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health, Topolová 748, 250 67, Klecany, Czech Republic. petr.winkler@nudz.cz.|Personal Social Services Research Unit London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE, UK. petr.winkler@nudz.cz.
authors.forename: Petr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Winkler
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health, Topolová 748, 250 67, Klecany, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Karolína
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mladá
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health, Topolová 748, 250 67, Klecany, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Miroslava
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Janoušková
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health, Topolová 748, 250 67, Klecany, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Aneta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Weissová
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health, Topolová 748, 250 67, Klecany, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tušková
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health, Topolová 748, 250 67, Klecany, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Ladislav
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Csémy
authors.affiliation: Personal Social Services Research Unit London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE, UK.|Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, 16 De Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AF, UK.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Evans-Lacko
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health; D018153:Czech Republic; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders; D028642:Persons with Psychiatric Disorders; D008875:Middle Aged; D058007:Physicians, Primary Care; D057545:Social Stigma; D013240:Stereotyping; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attitudes; CAMI; General population; Medical doctors; Mental illness; Stigma