Schizophrenia in the offspring of antenatally depressed mothers — A thirty one year follow-up of the Northern Finland 1966 birth cohort

Abstract

Negative attitudes towards patients with schizophrenia have been repeatedly reported in the literature and attributed mainly to insufficient educational programs aimed at increasing the general public's awareness about schizophrenia and mental diseases in general. The aim of this study was to investigate the attitudes towards de-institulization in 2 slices of the population representing 2 different generations: a young group (GY) ranged from 18 to 24 years old and an old group (GO) included those from 65 years old and up. Households in the province of Quebec were randomly contacted by phone, and replies to multiple choice questions from 153 participants (51 men, 49 women) from GY and 110 participants (41 men, 59 women) from GO were collected. When participants were asked about how they felt towards de-institutionalization. 57% of GY versus only 29% of GO agreed with de-institutionalization. The results showed a significant difference between both groups (p<0.05) and a relation between acceptance and years of education (p<0.05). 26% of GY had tess than 12 years of education versus 80% of GO and 74% of GY versus 20% of GO had more than 12 years of education. This confirms the strong relation between education and the acceptance of mentally ill patients in the society, and indicates a need for awareness programs aimed at educating the general public with special regard to the older population