Depression and Anxiety

Biography

Biography: Alicja Głębocka

Abstract

Dehumanization in medicine is one of the most dangerous phenomenon in the world health care system. Treating patients as nonhuman beings, aggressive behaviours toward them, inflicting pain and suffering instead of empathy and compassion influence negatively the quality of patients' life. People suffering from mental disorder seem to be exceptionally vulnerable to be victims of dehumanizing behaviours. Probably because of the lack of skills to recognize properly the social relationship, they are not able to identify dehumanizing behaviours and stand up to them. The aim of this study was to exam the evaluation of dehumanizing behaviours done by patients of mental hospital in relation to their cognition processes. The study included 60 participants, 30 of them were treated for depression, anxiety disorders and addiction (research group), 30 healthy people were included into the control group. Dehumanized Behavior Scale by Glebocka, Ruzyczka and selected tests from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale were used. The results indicated that patients were more tolerant for latent dehumanization and had lower level of understanding social values and norms than the control group. There were no differences between groups in the evaluation of patent dehumanization, verbal comprehension and logical thinking. Regression Analysis confirmed that understanding social situation is a significant predictor of the evaluation of latent dehumanization.