Attitudes to antipsychotic drugs and their side effects: a comparison between general practitioners and the general population

BACKGROUND: Attitudes towards antipsychotic medication play an important part in the treatment for schizophrenia and related disorders. We aimed measuring general practitioners' attitudes to antipsychotic drugs and their adverse side effects and comparing these with the attitudes of the general population. METHODS: Analysis and comparison of two representative samples, one comprising 100 General Practitioners (GPs), the other 791 individuals randomly selected from the general population. The setting was the German speaking cantons of Switzerland. RESULTS: General practitioners have significantly more positive attitudes towards anti-psychotic drugs than the general public. They reject widespread prejudices about the use of anti-psychotic medication significantly more than the general population. In particular the risk of dependency was assessed as 'low' by GP's (80%), in contrast to only 18% of the general population sample. In no instance did a majority of the GPs advise not tolerating any of the 10 possible adverse effects presented in this study. This is in marked contrast to the general population sample, where a majority recommended discontinuation for movement disorder (63%), strong tremor (59%), risk of dependency (55%) and feelings of unrest (54%). CONCLUSION: As well as effective management of side-effects being a vital aspect of patient and carer education, prescribing doctors need to be aware that their mentally ill patients are likely to be confronted with extremely negative public attitudes towards antipsychotic medication and with strong pressures to stop taking their medication in the event of side-effects

Subjektives Erleben von Körpersymptomen : prozesssorientierte Entfaltung, Perspektiven und Bedeutungen

Subjective experiences of body symptoms: Process oriente dunfolding, perspectives and meaningfulness: Objectives: This practically orientated, phenomenological study seeks to access body symptoms as they are subjectively experienced. The main questions addressed are: How do people describe their own subjective experience of body symptoms? If people are supported to give these subjective experiences of body symptoms more space and attention, do questions as to their "meaningfulness" or whether they "made sense" arise as central themes? Does this process change the perspective from which they perceive their symptoms? Methods: To answer these questions, a sample of 20 female adolescents (state high school students) was surveyed. Problem-centred interviews were used to research the "lived experience", the phenomenological, experience-oriented description of body symptoms. Deeper access was attained using methods adapted from Process Work of Mindell. Data was collected using guided interviews and subjects' drawings together with questionnaires regarding socio-demographic and personality charactersitics including the SOC-L9. Restults: From the interveiw transcripts and the subjetcs' drawings, it was shown that a significant number of the research subjects demonstrated a more differentiated awareness of their samptoms and broadened perspectives as a result of the intervention More differentiated awareness appeared as subjects described their subjective experience of symptoms as "relating to circumstances" and "benefit finding". The latter was mentioned always in the context of an extension of the known identity or self-description. In the category broadened persectives, the main themes were "changes in behaviour", "familiarity", "wholeness" and "regaining control". The marked decrease in threatening or conflicting elements in the sketches drawn after successful interventions demonstrates an increasingly positive attitude towards the described symptom. Conclusions: The results indicate that, through the described short interventions, the process oriented approach can change the subjective experience of otherwise agonising symptoms promoting a resource-oriented strategy. For further development and implementation of the approach, follow-up studies with different age groups and with male research subjects should be considered