Comparing the Effect of Contact-based Education with Acceptance and Commitment Training on Destigmatization Toward Psychiatric Disorders in Nursing Students

Background: Despite the importance of stigma in psychiatric disorders and due to the important role of nurses in caring and supporting such illnesses, it is not considered in nursing educations. Objectives: The current study aimed at comparing the effect of Contact-based education and acceptance and commitment-based training on stigma toward psychiatric disorders among nursing students. Methods: It was a clinical study and 111 nursing students of the 4th semester passing mental health training course 1 in Ibne-Sina Psychiatric hospital of Mashhad, Iran, were selected by cluster and quota sampling methods. They were divided into 3 groups of contact-based education (interpersonal contact among individuals with improved mental illnesses), acceptance and commitmentbased training and control group. In order to obtain data, The opening mind scales for Health Care Providers was used; and it was completed in 3 levels of pretest, posttest and 1-month follow-up sessions. Data analysis was carried out by repeated measurements of ANOVA. Results: There was no significant difference between the contact-based education and acceptance and commitment-based training groups in reducing the average score of stigma and subscales of social distance and diagnostic overshadowing (P > 0.05). On the other hand, in terms of mean changes, there was no significant difference among the 3 groups in the score of disclosure subscale (P = 0.09). However, contact-based education group demonstrated significant reduction in the mean of recovery and social responsibility subscales, compared to acceptance and commitment-based training group (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Although both contact-based education and acceptance and commitment training methods were effective, the results of subscales were different.