IS THE SOCIAL ACCEPTABILITY OF PSYCHIATRIC-PATIENTS DECREASED BY OROFACIAL DYSKINESIA

A group of psychiatric patients with and without orofacial dyskinesia (OFD) were filmed in pairs on videotape and a group of first-year soci al studies students were asked to select one candidate from each pair to fill a (simulated) job opening. A stationary picture (photograph) i n which OFD was not visible and moving images (a video film) in which dyskinesia was visible were shown of each patient. The video effect, w hich was an indicator of the increase in popularity of a patient on th e video film compared with the photograph, differed significantly betw een the OFD and control patients. Making the movement disability visib le caused a relative decrease in the popularity of the OFD patients as opposed to an increase in the popularity of the control patients.