The study was carried out on a total of 72 psychiatric in-patients with depressive disorders. Twenty four of them (F/M - 12/12) of the mean age of 54 ± 6 (range 42-65 years) were used for assessing the reliability of a Depression Stigma Questionnaire (DSQ) created specifically for this study (see details below). The remaining 48 patients (F/M - 31/17) of the mean age of 55 ± 10 (range 17-74 years) were then surveyed with the DSQ and other psychometric tools employed in the study, regarding the perception of stigmatization. Since there were no obvious differences in the score results depending on gender, all data were pooled and analyzed together. The patients of the latter group were diagnosed with depressive episodes (12.5% cases), major depressive disorder (45.8%), organic mood disorder, (29.2%), and generalized anxiety disorder (12.5%); the latter two with the predominance of depressive symptoms, and were hospitalized in psychiatric wards of hospitals in the cities of Warta, Opole, Rybnik, and Lubliniec in Poland at the time of the survey.
