Background: What patients' relatives and health professionals think about causes, treatments and psychosocial consequences of schizophrenia can influence its detection and outcome.
Aims: To compare the beliefs about schizophrenia in 190 nurses, 110 psychiatrists and 709 relatives of patients with this mental disorder, recruited in 30 randomly selected mental health centres.
Methods: In each centre, the key-relatives of the first consecutive 25 subjects with schizophrenia, and the nurses and psychiatrists who had been working in the service for at least one year, were asked to complete the Questionnaire on the Opinions about Mental Illness (QO).
Results: The factors most frequently mentioned by psychiatrists and nurses among the causes of schizophrenia were heredity, stress and family conflicts, while those most frequently mentioned by relatives were stress, traumas and love breakdown. Nurses had opinions: (a) similar to those expressed by psychiatrists concerning patients' ability to work equally as other people, and patients' punishability in case of illegal acts; (b) similar to those expressed by relatives about patients' unpredictability and political rights; (c) significantly different from the other two samples as concerns recognition of patients' affective rights.
Conclusions: Family psychoeducational interventions and nurses' training should address not only clinical aspects but also disability and psychosocial consequences of schizophrenia.