A multicenter Italian study of patients' relatives' beliefs about schizophrenia.

This study explored patients' relatives' beliefs about schizophrenia in Italy, a country with a long history of community-based psychiatry. The study was conducted among 709 key relatives of patients with schizophrenia who were recruited in 30 mental health departments. Relatives seemed to believe that mental hospitals are not appropriate places in which to treat their loved ones, even though most of them felt that they were alone in coping with the burden of their ill relative's disease. Most of the relatives agreed that people who have schizophrenia should be allowed to vote, but they appeared to have a stricter attitude toward affective rights, such as the patient's right to get married and have children, and tended to perceive their loved ones as being subject to social discrimination. The findings of this study may be useful for developing psychoeducational intervention and sensitization campaigns for the general population.