STIGMA IN THE PSYCHIATRIC PRACTICE OF A GENERAL HOSPITAL

Stigma is a socio-cultural phenomenon of multiple and powerful projections in different areas, including those of health and mental health. Historically, its collective objective to qualify and drastically marginalize those who suffer of a mental disorder, has expanded into all kinds of clinical settings. The characteristics and implications of stigma in the general hospital context, based on the tasks of consultation-liaison psychiatry, are examined. Actors of stigmatizing events (patients, relative, professionals, public, etc.) and stigma's forms of presentation (denial, rationalizations, open rejection, silence, etc.) are also described using pertinent examples. After analyzing the impact and consequences of stigma on daily care and follow-up of the affected patients, the article concludes offering various intervention and management modalities and reflections about the meaning of stigma and its future in medicine-society interactions across de world.