Summary

Since the early 1980s, a number of surveys have attempted to assess public attitudes to alcohol, drug and mental (ADM) disorders. In most instances, the investigations have focused on finding out the extent of acceptance and rejection of patients with ADM disorders or on the factors that shape these attitudes.

Some of the attitudes relate to patients and their disorders, while others relate to culture. Prominent among the former are the type of disorder and diagnostic labeling (Angermeyer & Matschinger, 1996a), perceived dangerousness, and the severity of disturbance in behavior (Nieradzik & Cochrane, 1985). Prominent among the latter are the age and education of the respondents (Trute, Tefft & Segall, 1989), their personal and social involvement (Ramon, 1979), social relations and social responsibility (Trute et al., 1989), personal experience of mental disorders (Angermeyer & Matschinger, 1996b, 1997), having or not having children (Bowen, Twemlow & Boquet, 1978), being an expert in psychiatry or being a member of the lay public (Angermeyer & Matschinger, 1994).

The present study is not concerned primarily with attitudes towards people who have an ADM disorder, but with the opinions concerning the disablement that accompanies such disorders. Two groups of key informants, i.e., a group of patients with an ADM disorder and a group of mental health professionals, were asked their opinion about what people in their society – in this case the country of Luxembourg – think and do when they are confronted with a person who suffers from the consequences of schizophrenia or another chronic psychotic disorder.

The study is part of an ongoing multicenter WHO study examining the consistency of the disablement construct in different cultures.