Medical Students' Attitudes Toward Psychiatry and Mental Disorders (original) (raw)
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Attitude of medical students towards psychiatry
Medical Education, 1992
Context: Both psychiatry as a specialty and mental illnesses carry a lot of stigmatizing attitudes. Even medical professionals are not immune to prevailing stigma. Psychiatrists are perceived to have less scientific attitude, earn less money, to be less respected, and to have less prestige. Aims: The present study was designed to know the attitude of medical students with exposure to medical education, toward psychiatry as a specialty. Settings and Design: The study was conducted at Teerthanker mahaveer medical college, Moradabad. The study was done among 110 second year medical students. Materials and Methods: Self-administered sociodemographic and Attitude Toward Psychiatry-30 items questionnaire were given to the second-year medical students after a psychiatry lecture. Consent was taken individually from all the 2nd year medical students (total=150), out of which 40 students refused to give the consent. The questionnaire was explained in detail to the rest of the 110 students and the scores were analyzed using appropriate statistical tools. Statistical Analysis Used: unpaired t-test, one-way ANOVA test with post-hoc bonferroni test, Chi-square test using SPSS version 21. Results: nearly 63.6% of second year medical students had positive attitude toward psychiatry (chi-square value = 0.313, p=0.855). Only 22.7% second-year students affirmatively indicated to choose psychiatry as a career choice while 24.5% denied choosing psychiatry as a speciality and 52.7% had neutral attitude toward choosing psychiatry. Conclusions: There was no significant difference in distribution of ATP score between males and females. Despite all the stigma towards psychiatry our students had more positive attitude toward psychiatry. The most positive responses were received in the items such as " psychiatric illness deserve at least as much attention as physical illness", "psychiatry is a respected branch of medicine", psychiatric hospitals have a specific contribution to make to the treatment of the mentally ill ", "in recent years psychiatric treatment has become quite effective", psychiatry is the most important part of the curriculum in medical schools" and " if we listen to them psychiatric patients are just as human as other people".
Comparison of attitudes toward psychiatry among undergraduate and postgraduate medical students
Open Journal of Psychiatry & Allied Sciences, 2021
Introduction: Attitudes toward psychiatry among medical students will have a great impact on future of expanding psychiatry and breaking barriers at multiple levels. Aims: To assess and compare the attitudes of undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) medical students toward psychiatry and assess association between sociodemographic variables and attitudes toward mental illness. Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted in a tertiary health care centre, total of 100 (50 UG and 50 PG) medical students were recruited in the study. A standardised questionnaire, Attitudes Toward Psychiatry-30 items (ATP-30) and semi-structured proforma for sociodemographic details were given to study subjects to fill up. Statistical analysis: Both quantitative and qualitative measures of data were calculated. Statistical significance was kept at p-value of <0.05, using Fisher's exact test and Chi-square test. Data were analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21. Results: The overall ATP-30 score responses were positive (>90) in both males (88%) and females (62%). More number of positive responses were seen in both UG (68%) and PG (84%) medical students compared to only some negative responses in UG (22%) and PG (16%). This difference is significant at p-value <0.05. There is a significant difference (p-value <0.05) in attitudes among UG and PG students in item number four revealing 32% PGs wish was to be psychiatrist. Majority of the UGs and PGs agreed that UG psychiatric training is valuable. Conclusion: We have found overall good attitudes toward psychiatry in the study population but conflicting interest in taking psychiatry as career choice.
Medical students' attitude towards psychiatry: a ten-year comparison
Medical Education, 1982
Medical students' interest in and attitudes toward psychiatry, both as a field of education and as a medical specialty, have been explored by a number of investigators. The present study compares two series of investigations completed at the McGill University teaching hospitals over a ten year span and involving third year medical students in 1968-69 (n=59) and in 1978-79 (n= 168). The findings of these two studies are evaluated in two parts: (1) comparison of attitudes toward psychiatry before and after clinical training in 1978-79. (2) comparison of the results obtained in 1969 with those in 1979. The results of the comparison showed that students currently put more emphasis on the clinical aspects of psychiatric training and less on the theoretical and research aspects of psychiatry. Thirty-two percent of students in 1979 found psychotherapy to be the most useful treatment modality as compared with only 10 percent in 1969. Findings reflecting the usefulness of organic therapies in psychiatry remained fairly consistent, but behaviour therapy was found to be less useful by students in 1979 than in 1969. In the 1969 survey, 2 per cent of the third year students indicated an interest in psychiatry as a future career as compared with 3.3 per cent in 1979. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the psychiatric training programmes in medical schools.
MEDICAL STUDENTS ATTITUDE TOWARD PSYCHIATRY IN UMM AL-QURA UNIVERSITY: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY
Background: Several studies worldwide reported negative attitude toward psychiatry from medical students and interns. Despite the increasing demand for psychiatry and mental health services, psychiatrists\' numbers are still low, and the field of psychiatry is still attracting a lower number of medical students. Objective: This study aims to measure the attitude of medical students and interns toward psychiatry in Umm Al-Qura University medical college, Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Method: A Cross-sectional study. A web-based Attitude Toward Psychiatry (ATP-30) questionnaire was distributed among randomly chosen interns and 6th-year medical students, who had completed their psychiatry course and rotation, and to fourth and 5th-year medical students, who did not have any previous exposure to psychiatry. Results: A total of 335 participants completed the survey, of which 168 were males, and 167 were females. Among them, only 53 are considering psychiatry as a career, while 193 did not, and 89 are not sure. The participants showed an overall positive attitude with the mean scoring of 98.09 ±12.22 on the ATP-30 questionnaire, with male participants showing more positive attitude (99.65±11.48) than female participants (96.44±12.79). The most neutral responses were about how facts in psychiatry are just vague speculations, how their undergraduate training in psychiatry was valuable, and that psychiatry cannot be taughteffectively because it is so amorphous. Negative attitude was observed in the areas concerning the choice of psychiatry as a future career and viewing psychiatric hospitals as little more than prisons. Positive attitude toward areas on the validity of psychotherapy, viewing psychiatry as a respected branch of medicine, attention toward mental illness, and the humanity of the mentally ill. Significant differences based on gender were observed in the areas measuring attitude toward psychiatric patients, psychiatric illness, psychiatry, and psychiatrists. The prior exposure to psychiatry teaching and practice did not seem to affect the attitude. Conclusions: Interns and students overall showed neutral to positive ATP. Proper evaluation and subsequent modification to the current medical curriculum, with more clinical exposure and engagement with psychiatrists working in the field, may be needed to improve the attitude of interns and students toward psychiatry and mental illness.
Assessing the attitudes of medical students towards psychiatry: A new paradigm
Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 2019
Background: Gauging the probability that medical students will select psychiatry as a career is a challenge, especially in Saudi Arabia, where the profession of psychiatry has still to gain ground. Thus, the aim of the current study was to investigate the attitudes of Saudi medical students towards psychiatry. Method: A total of 317 medical students were recruited in a cross-sectional study. An ATP-30 questionnaire was used. In addition to the suggested cutoff point of 90 in previous studies, the data were also categorized using the visual binning procedure. To enhance the number of significant predictors and obtain more realistic results, an Ordinal Logistic Regression model was applied. Result: The attitudes of medical students towards the three outcomes (dependent) variables; "Overall attitudes towards psychiatry, I want to be a psychiatrist, and Attitudes towards psychiatric treatment" varied across the five explanatory (predictor) variables, when assessed using Ordinal Logistic Regression. Age and gender proved significant with the three outcome variables, whereas Exposure to Psychiatric Clerkship identified "Overall attitudes towards psychiatry" and "Attitudes towards psychiatric treatment". Significant effects from a "Psychiatrist Relative" was found in "Overall attitudes towards psychiatry"and "I want to be a psychiatrist". The predictor variable; "Having a relative who is a psychiatric patient" was found to be significant only with, "I want to be a psychiatrist". Conclusion: The attitudes of medical students towards psychiatry can be predicted in the presence of specific factors. This is discussed in more detail in the relevant part of the study.
JNMA; journal of the Nepal Medical Association, 2013
INTRODUCTION Medical students tend to have a neutral or negative attitude to Psychiatry as a discipline. This study was initiated to explore the attitude towards mental illness and Psychiatry among the medical students and interns in Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences. METHODS A cross-sectional questionnaire based study was conducted among the medical students and interns at Dhulikhel Hospital.Two self-rating scales; Attitudes towards Psychiatry-30 and Attitudes to Mental Illnesswere used to assess attitudes towards mental illness and Psychiatryamong the total 159 subjects. Descriptive statistics and independent sample t-test were applied using SPSS- 16 for analysis. RESULTS Among the total 159 subjects, 44 (27.7%) were interns. Comparison of means of each item in Attitudes towards Psychiatry-30 and Attitudes to Mental Illnesswas done between males and females, medical students and interns, fi rst semester and ninth semester students. Most of the subjects showed neutral ...
Differences in Attitudes among Medical Students towards Psychiatry in One English University
Psychological Reports, 1995
Responses of 146 medical students in the final academic year on the Attitudes Towards Psychiatry Questionnaire were obtained before and after the clerkship in psychiatry. While there were no significant differences between the 57 men and 89 women, students' image of psychiatrists did not change but several initially held attitudes about psychiatric practice and training improved following the clerkship.
The Image of Psychiatry Among Medical Students : Clinic Study
International Journal of Approximate Reasoning, 2021
The stigmatization of psychiatric disorders affects the general public but also health professionals, especially doctors and medical students, their attitudes appear more negative towards psychiatric pathologies. At the joint end, it is clear that medical students\' interest in psychiatry as a career choice is low; while improving recruitment in psychiatry is more than ever a public health priority. This work is a \"before/after\" longitudinal study whose target population consists of 5th year medical students starting a psychiatry internship. The data collection was done through an anonymous self-survey with a scale psychometric: ATP-30 this compendium was made on the first and last day of the internship. Out of 90 students contacted we collected 82 actionable questionnaires. The psychiatry internship resulted in an increase in the average ATP-30 score from 111.62 ± 9.99 to 116.30± 9.88, confirming that this internship significantly improves the attitudes of the stude...