Investigation of the relationship between internalized stigma and anger among psychiatry inpatients

Objective: The research was conducted in the psychiatry service to examine some demographic variables, internalized stigma and anger levels, as well as the relationship of these variables with each other. Methods: All patients who underwent inpatient treatment in the psychiatric service of a research hospital in the city, and the sample was formed by patients who underwent inpatient treatment in a psychiatric clinic between May and October 2018. The collection of data included Personal Information Form, Internalized Stamping Scale in Mental Illness and the Continuous Anger and Anger Style Scale. The data were collected by face-to-face interview technique and evaluated by the SPSS package program. Results: The total stamping of 89 patients covered in the research was 67.76 +/- 12.55 and the average anger score was 71.64 +/- 11.86. Correlation analysis between scales found a positive relationship between internalized stigma levels of patients and anger (p<0.05). When examining the relationship between the lower dimensions of scales, it was observed that there were generally positive relationships (p<0.05) other than the subsize of the controlled anger subsize. The highest correlation in terms of subdimensions is between social retreat and internal anger subsizes (r=0.377). Discussion: As the level of stigma increased in the study, the level of anger increased, there was less stigma when anger was controlled, and the more social withdrawal there was, the more anger was suppressed. According to these results, it is recommended that psychotraining be carried out in later studies, considering that anger control and community stamping trainings for patients will be beneficial.