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Are some of the stigmas of addictions culturally sanctioned?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Patrick Corrigan
Affiliation:
Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Georg Schomerus
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Greifswald University, Greifswald, Germany
David Smelson
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
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Summary

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We provide three examples of how addiction stigma is sanctioned: (a) discrimination against people with addictions is often legal; (b) public health communications frequently use stigma to promote prevention; (c) some programmes, such as ‘12 steps’ promote self-stigma. The implications of sanctioned stigma for stigma-change programmes are then discussed.

Type
Editorials
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2017 

Footnotes

Declaration of interest

None.

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