Cross-sectional study of attitudes about suicide among psychiatrists in Shanghai

Yumei Jiao,Wei Xiong,Guojun Wu,Liwei Wang,Xianyun Li,Michael R Phillips,Yourong Sheng

doi:10.1186/1471-244x-14-87

Abstract

BackgroundAttitudes and knowledge about suicide may influence psychiatrists’ management of suicidal patients but there has been little research about this issue in China.MethodsWe used the Scale of Public Attitudes about Suicide (SPAS) – a 47-item scale developed and validated in China – to assess knowledge about suicide and seven specific attitudes about suicide in a sample of 187 psychiatrists from six psychiatric hospitals in Shanghai. The results were compared to those of 548 urban community members (assessed in a previous study).ResultsCompared to urban community members, psychiatrists were more likely to believe that suicide can be prevented and that suicide is an important social problem but they had more stigmatizing beliefs about suicidal individuals and felt less empathy for them. The belief that suicide can be prevented was more common among female psychiatrists than male psychiatrists but male psychiatrists felt more empathy for suicidal individuals. Only 37% of the psychiatrists correctly agreed that talking about suicide-related issues with an individual would not precipitate suicidal behavior and only 41% correctly agreed that those who state that they intend to kill themselves may actually do so.ConclusionsMany psychiatrists in Shanghai harbor negative attitudes about suicidal individuals and are concerned that directly addressing the issue with patients will increase the risk of suicide. Demographic factors, educational status and work experience are associated with psychiatrists’ attitudes about suicide and, thus, need to be considered when training psychiatrists about suicide prevention.

Highlights

Attitudes and knowledge about suicide may influence psychiatrists’ management of suicidal patients but there has been little research about this issue in China
The results show that compared to female psychiatrists male psychiatrists were less likely to believe that suicide can be prevented, more likely to believe that suicidal behavior is an effective method of controlling others, and more likely to feel empathy for persons with suicidal behavior
Our study found that psychiatrists from low-level institutions were more likely than psychiatrists from a tertiary psychiatric center to hold discriminatory beliefs about suicidal individuals and to believe that suicide was an important social problem

Summary

Introduction

Attitudes and knowledge about suicide may influence psychiatrists’ management of suicidal patients but there has been little research about this issue in China. To our knowledge there has never been a study anywhere that compares attitudes about suicide between community members and mental health professionals – an approach that would help identify the socio-cultural context from which psychiatrists’ beliefs about suicide have arisen. As a first step to addressing these issues, in the current study we administered a validated, culture-specific scale that assesses attitudes about suicide to a large sample of psychiatrists working in Shanghai and compared the results to those of urban community members from Tianjin (another large city in China) who were administered the same scale

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion