This article reviews research on stigma and discrimination—at both the interpersonal and societal levels—faced by disadvantaged groups. Research on interpersonal discrimination primarily concerns discrimination that is perceived and directly experienced (e.g., discrimination in employment and health care), whereas research on societal discrimination focuses on broad societal factors (e.g., inst...

Stigma contributes greatly to the burden of schizophrenia and is a major obstacle to recovery, yet, little is known about the subjective experiences of those directly affected in low and middle income countries. This paper aims to describe the experiences of stigma and discrimination of people living with schizophrenia (PLS) in three sites in India and to identify factors influencing negative d...

Epilepsy is one of the most stigmatizing medical conditions worldwide. It could be argued that the problem of stigma and discrimination might be different in an Islamic culture. A cross-sectional study of 130 patients with epilepsy was performed using the Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness (ISMI) questionnaire that was adapted for epilepsy. The questionnaire contained 29 items on a 4-point s...

The response to the human immunodeficiency virus epidemic faces many challenges with stigma and discrimination being two of them. The aim of this study is to determine the extent of effects of stigmatization and discrimination against people living with HIV-AIDS, and the influence of the type of hospital structure, in the manifestations of stigma and discrimination. A prospective cross sectiona...

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection and AIDS remain a major public health crisis in Nigeria which harbors more people living with HIV than any other country in the world, except South Africa and India. A significant challenge to the success of achieving universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support by 2010 is HIV-AIDS stigma and discrimination. Eight studies looking a...

PURPOSE To evaluate the factors, including personality and coping styles, likely to be influential in enhancing the social stigma of epilepsy. METHODS Data were collected from 400 adults with epilepsy recruited from 10 epilepsy centers in Korea. Clinical information about seizures was obtained by neurologists, and other information was collected from self-completed questionnaires, including t...

OBJECTIVE The "Like Minds, Like Mine" anti-stigma and discrimination programme has been running in New Zealand since 1997. We aimed to investigate the nature and degree of anticipated and experienced discrimination reported by people with mental illness, and their views on whether the campaign was contributing to reductions in stigma and discrimination. METHODS Questionnaires were sent to ran...

Nigeria has about 3.8 million people living with HIV, the second largest globally. Stigma and discrimination are major barriers to testing, treatment uptake, and adherence. In this review, we synthesized information on research studies, policies, and programmes related to HIV-stigma in Nigeria. This was with a view to identify critical areas that research and programmes must address in order to...

Stigma has been identified as a major barrier to health care and quality of life in illness management. But unfortunately there is no common theoretical perspective on stigma. We need a sustainable theory of health-related stigma. This would start with a coherent definition of stigma that brings together both individual and social dimensions of this complex phenomenon. It would reassesses the e...