Stigmatization of mental illness in Japan: Images and frequency of encounters with diagnostic categories of mental illness among medical and non-medical university students

Psychiatric patients suffer from their diagnostic labels. In this study we examined the relationship between stigmatization and psychiatric diagnostic labels using 233 non-medical students and 104 medical students. Results showed that students who have negative attitudes to the mentally ill do not necessarily have a negative image of psychiatric labels per se. The frequency of encounter, however, was higher in medical students than in non-medical students. There were no differences between medical students and non-medical students as regards images of psychiatric labels. The label of schizophrenia had the poorest image of all psychiatric diagnostic labels. The labels often used to disguise the diagnosis of schizophrenia (e.g., 'neurasthenia,' 'autonomic nervous system dysfunction,' 'psychosomatic disease' and 'psychogenic reaction') had a more favorable image.