Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Bipolar patients face stigma, globally Reuters story - "Despite numerous public education campaigns for mental health and bipolar disorder in the United States and Canada, the stigma experienced by bipolar patients in these countries appears about the same as in others, according to a global survey released at the World Congress of Biological Psychiatry. The World Federation for Mental Health, of Alexandria, Virginia released the results of the survey of 687 patients who were drawn from the United States, Canada, Greece, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, and Italy. Preston J. Garrison, secretary and chief executive officer of the federation, said the degree of discrimination reported in the United States and Canada was about the same as other countries in the survey. And that surprised him, he said, because of the numerous efforts to inform the general public about these illnesses in Canada and the United States. In the United States, Garrison said, 82 percent of people with bipolar disorder feel discriminated against in their social circles. In the United States, 65 percent reported that families and teachers didn't understand their illness. In Canada the figure was 61 percent."