Cognitive schemas among mental health professionals: Adaptive or maladaptive?

Maladaptive cognitive schemas can lead to biases during clinical assessment or psychotherapeutic interventions. This study aimed to explore the cognitive schemas among mental health professionals. 100 mental health professionals, of both genders, equally divided between psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and psychiatric nurses, were approached and administered the Young Schema Questionnaire - Short Form after written informed consent. Males had higher maladaptive schemas than female respondents across all schema domains, viz., disconnection/rejection, impaired autonomy, impaired limits, other-directedness, and overvigilance (P ≤ 0.05). Psychiatrists had higher maladaptive schemas than psychologists (P ≤ 0.05). Age was weakly but positively corelated with the schemas of self-sacrifice (P = 0.038) and unrelenting standards (P = 0.002). Mental health professionals also may have maladaptive schemas, which needs to be addressed through schema therapy.