Psychiatric curriculum and its impact on the attitude of Indian undergraduate medical students and interns

Changes in attitudes toward persons with mental disorders after attendance of a psychiatric curriculum among medical students in Vietnam: A cross-sectional study

This study aimed to determine the influence of psychiatric training and hands-on learning with individuals with mental illness on increasing medical students' benevolent attitudes towards psychiatry and psychiatric patients. The cross-sectional study compares medical students' attitudes before and after a compulsory psychiatry curriculum and psychiatric bedside training at Hanoi Medical University with those of non-medical students who have yet to undergo similar training. Two validated scales regarding the attitudes toward psychiatry and psychiatric patients were evaluated. Analysis of the Medical Conditions Regard Scale[1] revealed a significant difference, indicating that medical students displayed more accepting and benevolent attitudes towards psychiatry and psychiatric patients after completing the curriculum and bedside training than medical students before participation. Most stigmatising and rejecting attitudes were found among non-medical students. This study is the first to examine medical students' attitudes toward psychiatry and psychiatric patients compared to non-medical students in Vietnam. It can guide the development of the medical curriculum to increase benevolence towards psychiatric patients and interest in the psychiatric field of work in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, aiming to improve the mental health care sector.

Impact of clinical rotational posting on attitude toward psychiatry of undergraduate medical students in Malaysia

Background

Almost all over the world, psychiatry training of undergraduate medical students has been criticized to be deficient in imparting required knowledge and improving the perception of students towards psychiatry and psychiatric treatment. Considering the large mental health need gap in the community, it is essential to improve undergraduate students' attitude toward psychiatry.

Aim

Hence, this study was planned to study the impact of psychiatry clinical posting on attitude toward psychiatry of undergraduate medical students.

Materials and Methods

Undergraduate medical students undergoing psychiatry posting were assessed on the first and last day of clinical posting with the help of semi-structured proforma consisting of sociodemographic information, favored future career choice, the relevance of psychiatry to their future careers, the usefulness of particular knowledge and skills, the value of knowledge of psychiatric specialties and the utility of different settings for learning psychiatry.

Results

After their clinical posting, students had a more positive attitude towards the usefulness of psychiatry knowledge in future general practice and the usefulness of psychiatry knowledge from undergraduate training in the future. Knowledge of alcohol withdrawal management, detection and management of delirium, and Mental Health Acts were perceived more essential in the future. Also, specialties such as deaddiction and child and adolescent psychiatry were felt more useful in future practice. After posting, students perceived that psychiatry can also be learned at medical and surgical wards as well as during home visits. However, despite some positive changes in attitude toward psychiatry, there was no significant change in choosing psychiatry as a career by the students after posting.

Conclusion

Undergraduate psychiatry training during clinical posting was able to make some positive changes in the knowledge and attitude of students. However, still, there were lacunae in some areas of concern. Preference of psychiatry as a branch of specialization was not increased after posting. This indicates the need for better reforms in psychiatry education at the undergraduate level to improve the perception of undergraduate students about psychiatry.

Attitude towards patients with psychiatric illness among undergraduate medical students at Government Medical College: A cross-sectional study

Background

People with mental illnesses commonly experience stigma, discrimination, and prejudice from the general public and medical professionals around the world. Numerous research has looked into the unfavourable perceptions that medical students have of those who suffer from mental illness.

Objective

The objective was to study the attitude of undergraduate medical students towards patients with psychiatric illnesses.

Materials and Methods

A cross-sectional study was carried out among undergraduate medical students who were exposed (n = 69) to 2-week psychiatry posting and attended lectures and those who were not exposed (n = 163) to psychiatry training using self-reported Attitude Scale for Mental Illness (ASMI) questionnaire via Google form distributed among medical students.

Results

The findings indicate there is no change in attitude toward the patient with psychiatric illness after exposure to psychiatry training among medical students. However, urban residence and female gender were the factors found to be influencing students' attitudes towards patients with psychiatric illnesses.

Conclusions

There was no change in attitude towards patients with psychiatric illness after psychiatry exposure. Students belonging to urban domicile and female students showed more sympathetic attitudes toward those with mental illnesses.

Attitudes Toward Psychiatry Among Medical Students With a Psychiatric Major at Chongqing Medical University

OBJECTIVES

To understand the attitudes of medical students with a psychiatry major toward psychiatry at Chongqing medical university in China and to find out factors influencing students' career choice.

METHODS

The present study used an online web survey tool to assess the attitudes toward psychiatry amongst 422 students majoring in psychiatry at Chongqing medical university in China using sociodemographic and Attitudes Toward Psychiatry-30 items (ATP-30) scales. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis were used to examine associated factors.

RESULTS

Three hundred and sixty-nine students (87%) answered the questionnaire. Nearly 54.5% of participants had overall positive attitudes to psychiatry and 80.8% thought psychiatrist could be a career choice. Of the students, 5.1% showed that they did not want to be a psychiatrist while the remaining 14.1% were undecided. The first and fifth year students showed less desire to be a psychiatrist (74.3 and 69.8%, respectively); the highest percentage recorded is of the third year (90.6%). Female participants, in contact with patients suffering from mental illness, were willing to study psychiatry as a master degree and see good prospects were positive factors in choosing psychiatry as a career.

CONCLUSIONS

Students generally have good expectations toward psychiatry, but different opinions are also held and the field is still faced with various challenges in order to provide more psychiatrists.

Acceptability and effectiveness of a poetic narrative video facilitated large classroom teaching in psychiatry

Background

Lecture based large classroom teaching is limited in scope of learning by being primarily. Teacher focussed, directive and monotonous with students often being passive participants. In psychiatry, problem is further compounded because of stigma around the subject and lack of summative assessment. Narratives and poems have been used in education to facilitate teaching.

Methods

50 randomly selected medical undergraduate students were subjected to short poetic narrative video facilitated large classroom interactive lecture, while 50 other students were imparted traditional classroom lecture. Acceptability and effectiveness of this teaching learning modality was done with a questionnaire and multiple-choice questions on the given topic post the lecture.

Result

Around 90 percent of the student found the modified classroom teaching to be acceptable. It was equally effective as traditional classroom teaching. Student and faculty reflected on the whole experience as innovative, immersive and appealing to empathy.

Conclusion

Poetic narrative facilitated classroom teaching is an acceptable and equally effective modality of large classroom teaching.

Absence of undergraduate medical students from psychiatric training: A study from central India

BACKGROUND

Psychiatric problem is as common as among the 25% of the general population and 15% patients attending specialty clinic. Majority of the cases are dealt by primary care physician at the first contact, but there is only 2 weeks of clinical posting and 20 h of theory classes during MBBS course. Earlier studies have reported low attendance during the posting and theory classes. There are few studies on this aspect. On this background, the present study was planned.

METHODOLOGY

One hundred 8^th semester students of MBBS from two medical colleges (Group A government aided college and Group B from Private college under autonomous university) from the same locality of Central Maharashtra were selected for the study after due approval by the Institutional Ethical Committee. Questionnaire was prepared by the psychiatric faculty of both institutes and administered to the individual students. The data were analyzed using suitable statistical methods (Chi-square test and t-test).

RESULTS

Only 27% of the students in Group A attended 25%-30% of clinical posting, whereas none of them attended a single theory class. While in Group B, 1/3^rd of students attended 30%-40% of clinical posting and 20%-25% of theory class. No separate examination in the subject (88%-94%) and adjustment of attendance in the other major subjects (64-86%) were cited as main reasons for nonattendance among the majority of the students in both the groups.

CONCLUSION

Strict adherence to the attendance by the institutional authority, increase in the training hours and separate examination in the subject at undergraduate level may help in improving the attendance and change in attitude of the students toward psychiatry.

A nationwide survey of attitudes towards psychiatry among final-year medical students in Sri Lanka

Stigma towards psychiatry, a debilitating phenomenon worldwide, is likely to have engendered the longstanding lack of recruitment into psychiatry in Sri Lanka (SL). However, as recent expansion of the undergraduate training in psychiatry in SL may have instigated favorable changes in students' attitudes, we assessed the attitudes of students regarding psychiatry by administering Attitude towards psychiatry-30 (ATP-30) scale to final-year medical students in nine medical schools in SL. This 30-item questionnaire covers eight domains of psychiatry and is rated on a Likert scale, producing a total score out of 150. A multiple linear regression was performed to investigate associated factors. A total of 743 fin. l-year students participated. Of them, 54 % were male. The mean attitude score was 107.7 (SD = 12.3) and 92.2 % showed an overall "positive" attitude. 22.2 % of students considered psychiatry as a potential future career. Students with more than one month of clinical exposure to psychiatry showed a better attitude compared to those with shorter exposure. Female gender and the presence of a close person with mental illness were also associated with better attitudes and career interest. The generally positive attitude towards psychiatry among medical students may be explained, at least partly, by recent advances in undergraduate psychiatry education in SL. Longer clinical exposure to psychiatry being associated with better attitudes indicates the need to ensure adequate duration of clinical training in psychiatry in the undergraduate curriculum.

The Potential Effect of the Psychiatric Clerkship and Contact-Based Hypothesis on Explicit and Implicit Stigmatizing Attitudes of Canadian Medical Students Towards Mental Illness

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to assess if having completed a psychiatric clerkship or having increased exposure to mental illness in general was associated with reduced explicit and implicit stigmatizing attitudes towards mental illness in undergraduate medical students.

METHODS

A secondary analysis of data specific to medical students from McMaster University was completed. Data were obtained through a cross-sectional survey administered electronically. It consisted of a demographic questionnaire, the Opening Minds Scale for Healthcare Providers (OMS-HC) 12-item survey, and an Implicit Association Test (IAT). The OMS-HC was used as a measure of explicit stigmatizing attitudes, whereas the IAT was used as a measure of implicit bias. All analyses were completed using Stata/IC 15 and were two-tailed with significance defined as p < 0.05.

RESULTS

Individuals that self-reported either having had a mental illness or diagnosis by a health care professional had significantly lower levels of explicit stigma. Final-year medical students had significantly lower levels of implicit stigmatizing attitudes than first-year medical students. Neither having completed a psychiatric clerkship nor having a close relationship with someone experiencing a mental illness was significantly associated with the explicit or implicit stigmatizing attitudes of medical students.

CONCLUSION

More years in medical school and self-identifying or receiving a diagnosis of mental illness are associated with reduced stigmatizing attitudes, whereas having completed the psychiatric clerkship and having a close relationship with an individual experiencing mental illness were not. This study suggests that the psychiatric clerkship may have limited impact on the stigmatizing attitudes of medical students.

Assessing the attitudes of medical students towards psychiatry: A new paradigm

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 cut-off 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.

Attitude toward psychiatrists and psychiatric medication: A survey from five metropolitan cities in India

BACKGROUND

Stigmatization and overall scarcity of psychiatrists and other mental health-care professionals remain a huge public health challenge in low- and middle-income countries, more specifically in India. Most patients seek help from faith healers, and awareness about psychiatrists and treatment methods is often lacking. Our study aims to explore public attitudes toward psychiatrists and psychiatric medication in five Indian metropolitan cities and to identify factors that could influence these attitudes.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Explorative surveys in the context of public attitudes toward psychiatrists and psychiatric medication were conducted using five convenience samples from the general population in Chennai (n = 166), Kolkata (n = 158), Hyderabad (n = 139), Lucknow (n = 183), and Mumbai (n = 278). We used a quota sample with respect to age, gender, and religion using the census data from India as a reference.

RESULTS

Mean scores indicate that attitudes toward psychiatrists and psychiatric medication are overall negative in urban India. Negative attitudes toward psychiatrists were associated with lower age, lower education, and strong religious beliefs. Negative attitudes toward psychotropic medication were associated with lower age, male gender, lower education, and religion.

CONCLUSION

In line with the National Mental Health Policy of India, our results support the perception that stigma is widespread. Innovative public health strategies are needed to improve the image of psychiatrists and psychiatric treatment in society and ultimately fill the treatment gap in mental health.

How do psychiatrists in India construct their professional identity? A critical literature review

Psychiatric practice in India is marked by an increasing gulf between largely urban-based mental health professionals and a majority rural population. Based on the premise that any engagement is a mutually constructed humane process, an understanding of the culture of psychiatry including social process of local knowledge acquisition by trainee psychiatrists is critical. This paper reviews existing literature on training of psychiatrists in India, the cultural construction of their professional identities and autobiographical reflections. The results reveal a scarcity of research on how identities, knowledge, and values are constructed, contested, resisted, sustained, and operationalized through practice. This paper hypothesizes that psychiatric training and practice in India continues to operate chiefly in an instrumental fashion and bears a circular relationship between cultural, hierarchical training structures and patient-carer concerns. The absence of interpretative social science training generates a professional identity that predominantly focuses on the patient and his/her social world as the site of pathology. Infrequent and often superfluous critical cultural reflexivity gained through routine clinical practice further alienates professionals from patients, caregivers, and their own social landscapes. This results in a peculiar brand of theory and practice that is skewed toward a narrow understanding of what constitutes suffering. The authors argue that such omissions could be addressed through nuanced ethnographies on the professional development of psychiatrists during postgraduate training, including the political economies of their social institutions and local cultural landscapes. Further research will also help enhance culturally sensitive epistemology and shape locally responsive mental health training programs. This is critical for majority rural Indians who place their trust in State biomedical care.

Medical and nursing students' attitudes toward mental illness: An Indian perspective

OBJECTIVES

Compare the attitudes toward mental illness between medical and nursing undergraduate students from a university in India.

METHODS

A cross sectional descriptive study was carried out among medical (n=154) and nursing undergraduate students (n=168) using Attitude Scale for Mental Illness (ASMI) questionnaire with six sub scales namely; Separatism, Stereotyping, Restrictiveness, Benevolence, Pessimistic prediction and Stigmatization. This was a 5-point Likert scale with 34 items to rate participants responses from totally disagree (1) to totally agree (5). The lower scores indicate positive attitudes toward persons with mental illness.

RESULTS

Our findings revealed that 54.5% of medical students versus 64.8% of nursing students have positive attitudes toward mental illness. While medical students have better attitudes against separatism and stigmatization, nursing students have more positive attitudes in benevolence and against pessimism.

CONCLUSIONS

An important proportion of medical and nursing students have negative attitudes toward mental illness. It is necessary to review and adapt the current curriculum to favor the positive attitude of future professionals toward people with these types of diseases.

Attitude of interns towards mental illness and psychiatry: A study from two medical colleges in South India

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to assess the intern's beliefs about mental illness, their attitude towards psychiatry and psychiatry as a career choice.

METHODS

In a cross-sectional design, one hundred and seventy six interns from the two medical colleges completed the Belief about Mental illness scale and Attitudes Towards Psychiatry (ATP-29) scale.

RESULTS

Majority of the interns considered mentally ill patients as dangerous, unpredictable, cannot take up major responsibilities, cannot be a good parent, have poor interpersonal or social skills. The attitude towards psychiatry overall, functioning of a psychiatrist, efficacy of psychiatry treatment was found to be good in over 90% of the interns. The attitude towards career and reward aspect of psychiatry was not favorable in about 40%. About 13% considered psychiatry as a career choice.

CONCLUSIONS

Beliefs about mental illness continue to be negative. Though the attitude towards psychiatry, psychiatrist and treatment efficacy is good, the social and reward aspects of psychiatry are not encouraging. Steps for changes in undergraduate medical education policies are required.

Attitude towards psychiatrists: A comparison between two metropolitan cities in India

BACKGROUND

Few patients in need of mental health care have access to psychiatric care in low and middle income countries. Public attitudes towards psychiatrists have not been adequately studied in most developing countries and especially in India, where on average one trained psychiatrist is available for 300,000 people. The aim of our study was to explore attitudes towards psychiatrists in the general population in two Indian metropolitan cities (Chennai and Kolkata) and to identify factors that could influence these attitudes.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS

Explorative surveys in the context of public attitudes towards psychiatrists were conducted in a convenience sample from the general population in Chennai (n=166) and Kolkata (n=158). Sampling was balanced for age, gender and school education.

RESULTS

Comparing the two samples using a multivariate analysis, we found more negative attitudes towards psychiatrists in Chennai compared to Kolkata (p<0.0001). Negative attitudes correlated with lower education levels (p<0.001) and stronger religious beliefs (p<0.05) in both cities.

CONCLUSION

Attitudes towards psychiatrists differed widely between two large metropolitan cities in India. In line with previous studies, negative attitudes correlated with lower level of education and stronger religious beliefs across both cities. Future studies may identify finer cultural and social factors that play an important role in attitudes towards psychiatrists in a diverse country like India.

Impact of differences in psychiatry curriculum of undergraduate medical and physiotherapy students on their attitude towards psychiatry

BACKGROUND

Negative attitude toward psychiatry (ATP) among medical students is a serious concern. Some studies have concluded that after training in the subject, attitude changes toward positive side. Currently in India, medical students have a less intense course without separate exam or binding to attend training whereas physiotherapy students have more intense course with separate subject exam and binding to attend training in psychiatry.

OBJECTIVE

To ascertain and compare the positive and negative ATP in final year MBBS students and final year physiotherapy (BPTh) students who have completed psychiatry curriculum.

METHODS

This is a cross-sectional study with semi-structured pro forma for sociodemographic variables and ATP-30 questionnaire to evaluate ATP of 94 medical and physiotherapy students each. Nonparametric methods were used for statistical analysis with appropriate tests of significance and P value was set at 0.05.

RESULTS

Mean ATP-30 score for medical students was 91.9 (standard deviation [SD] =7.0) and that of physiotherapy students was 105.8 (SD = 9.7), this difference in two groups was highly significant (Kruskal-Wallis H = 81.3, df = 1, P < 0.001). Of all medical students, 36 (41.4%) had negative attitude while only 2 (2.1%) of the physiotherapy students had negative ATP (χ(2) = 41.7, P < 0.001). Boys were 2.6 times more likely to have negative ATP than girls (relative risk = 2.6, P = 0.005).

CONCLUSIONS

Physiotherapy students with intense and planned training in psychiatry as an exam subject have significantly more positive ATP than medical students.

Perception, knowledge, and attitude toward mental disorders and psychiatry among medical undergraduates in Karnataka: A cross-sectional study

CONTEXT

Globally, psychiatry as a subject, psychiatrists as professionals, and patients with psychiatric disorders are subjected to cultural stereotypes and negative attitude by the general population. What is of alarming concern is that these prejudices exist within the medical community as well.

AIMS

This study aims at evaluating the perception, knowledge, and attitude toward psychiatric disorders, therapeutic modalities used in psychiatry, psychiatry as a subject and psychiatrists as professionals among undergraduate medical students in Karnataka.

SETTINGS AND DESIGN

This is a descriptive, cross-sectional type of study conducted in three medical colleges located in Karnataka.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A sample of 500 students from all three professional phases of MBBS was selected using purposive sampling. A semistructured prevalidated questionnaire was used to assess the perception, knowledge, and attitude of undergraduate medical students toward psychiatric disorders and psychiatry.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS

Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences, version 16.0.

RESULTS

The undergraduate medical student population had significant shortcomings in knowledge and attitude pertaining to psychiatric disorders, more glaring in the initial years of education. A comparatively positive opinion was obtained regarding psychiatry as a subject and psychiatrists as professionals, which may reflect the changing trends and concepts, both in society and medical community.

CONCLUSION

This study highlights the need for better educational measures at undergraduate level in order to shape a positive attitude of the health care providers towards psychiatry, which is essential for ensuring better care for patients as well as reduction of stigma surrounding psychiatric disorders.

Attitudes toward people with mental illness among medical students

Background:

Globally, people with mental illness frequently encounter stigma, prejudice, and discrimination by public and health care professionals. Research related to medical students’ attitudes toward people with mental illness is limited from India.

Aim:

The aim was to assess and compare the attitudes toward people with mental illness among medical students’.

Materials and Methods:

A cross-sectional descriptive study design was carried out among medical students, who were exposed (n = 115) and not exposed (n = 61) to psychiatry training using self-reporting questionnaire.

Results:

Our findings showed improvement in students’ attitudes after exposure to psychiatry in benevolent (t = 2.510, P < 0.013) and stigmatization (t = 2.656, P < 0.009) domains. Further, gender, residence, and contact with mental illness were the factors that found to be influencing students’ attitudes toward mental illness.

Conclusion:

The findings of the present study suggest that psychiatric education proved to be effective in changing the attitudes of medical students toward mental illness to a certain extent. However, there is an urgent need to review the current curriculum to prepare undergraduate medical students to provide holistic care to the people with mental health problems.

The impact of the educational environment on career choice and attitudes toward psychiatry

BACKGROUND

The educational environment may influence students' attitudes towards medical specialties, which in turn can affect specialty career choices. The present study sought to establish if perceptions of the educational environment in a psychiatry rotation influenced attitudinal changes towards psychiatry in medical students and impacts decisions about psychiatry as a career choice.

METHODS

The modified Attitudes to Psychiatry Scale, Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure, and questions specific to career choice in psychiatry were administered to 100 undergraduates in a psychiatry rotation.

RESULTS

Significant improvements in attitudes toward psychiatry were highly correlated with the educational environment, particularly when it was perceived as providing inspiration and enabling students to recognize the merits of psychiatry and the effectiveness of treatment. However, there was a worsening trend in the stigma to psychiatry in the posting, and only the positive attitudinal change (but not educational environment) influenced a career choice in psychiatry.

CONCLUSIONS

While the educational environment contributes towards positive attitudinal changes in a specialty rotation, stigma of psychiatry continues to be a limiting factor, which is, unfortunately, not clearly addressed in the curriculum. The findings support the urgent need for interventions in this area.

Changing Medical Students' Attitudes to Psychiatry through Newer Teaching Techniques

The significance of mental health in the entire health scenario has increased. However, the representation of psychiatry in the current MBBS curriculum for undergraduate students in India still remains much less than desirable. Further, stigmatising attitudes lessen these future doctors’ ability to detect and manage patients with psychological problems despite adequate knowledge about psychiatry. Students believe that psychiatrically ill patients are unpredictable and can be dangerous to others. Some feel that psychiatry is unscientific, imprecise and treatment is not effective. Traditional teaching methods are directed more towards imparting knowledge than changing the attitudes of students. Newer teaching and assessment techniques should be used to bring about attitudinal changes and develop interest among medical students. Case based and problem based learning, small group teaching, simulated patients, using movies, multidisciplinary seminars, integrated teaching, attitude questionnaires, objective structured clinical examinations etc., could be introduced in the curriculum to achieve this objective.

Undergraduate Nursing Students' Attitudes towards Mental Illness: Implications for Specific Academic Education

BACKGROUND

Health care professions are not immune to social prejudices and surprisingly share the general public's attitude attributed to people with mental illness. Nursing students are future health manpower research related to nursing students attitudes toward mental illness is limited.

AIM

The aim of this following study is to examine the undergraduate nursing students' attitudes toward people with mental illness.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Cross-sectional descriptive design was adopted for the present study. A total of 148 undergraduate nursing students were purposively selected to complete self-reported questionnaires.

RESULTS

THE NURSING STUDENTS HAVE SIGNIFICANT POSITIVE ATTITUDES TOWARDS MENTAL ILLNESS IN THREE OF THE SIX ATTITUDES FACTORS: Restrictiveness (8.59), benevolence (29.8) and stigmatization (9.18). However, these students have negative attitudes in separatism (27.1), stereotype (11.5) and pessimistic predictions (11.7) domains as they rated high.

CONCLUSION

Academic education in this area must be planned so as to favor the change of the attitudes that include greater use of teaching strategies that challenge beliefs and assumptions and promote a commitment to provide holistic care to people with mental illness.

Impact of psychiatry training on attitude of medical students toward mental illness and psychiatry

CONTEXT

Attitude of fresh graduates toward psychiatric patients is important to bridge the treatment gap due to mental illness. Psychiatry as a subject has been neglected in the undergraduates of MBBS.

AIMS

(1) To compare the attitude of medical students and interns in a medical college toward mental illness and psychiatry. (2) To assess the impact of psychiatric training on attitude toward the mentally ill person and mental illness.

SETTINGS AND DESIGN

Cross-sectional, single assessment study conducted at a tertiary hospital.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS

Participants consisted of medical students of 1(st) and 2(nd) year who didn't have any exposure to psychiatry and interns, who had completed their compulsory 2 week clinical posting in psychiatry. Participants were individually administered sociodemographic proforma, General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12), opinion about mental illness (OMI) scale, and attitude to psychiatry-29 (ATP-29) scale.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS

Standard descriptive statistics (mean, percentage), Chi-square test.

RESULTS

A total of 135 participants formed the study sample, with 48, 47, and 40 participants from 1(st) year, 2(nd) year and interns, respectively. Mean GHQ score was 14.03 for the entire sample. There was better outlook of interns toward psychiatry and patients with mental disorders in comparison to fresh graduate students in some areas. Overall, negative attitude toward mental illness and psychiatry was reflected.

CONCLUSIONS

Exposure to psychiatry as per the current curriculum seems to have a limited influence in bringing a positive change in OMI and psychiatry.

Study of attitude of interns toward psychiatry: A survey of a tertiary level hospital in Ahmedabad

BACKGROUND

Worldwide, multiple studies demonstrate a negative attitude of interns toward psychiatry. Scenario in Gujarat state has never been looked upon. The objective of this study is to identify the situation in this region by studying the attitude of interns toward various areas of psychiatry and to study the gender differences if any.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

For study, all 122 interns who attended psychiatry posting for the 1st time in their internship, over a period of 8 months were approached amongst which 100 (56 males and 44 females) consented to be a part. Attitude was measured with 30 items attitude toward psychiatry (ATP 30) questionnaire on the 1st day of their posting. The data thus collected were analyzed by SPSS version 20.

RESULT

The results showed a neutral to the negative attitude in major areas of psychiatry. Most neutral responses were seen regarding contribution of psychiatric hospitals in the treatment, regarding psychiatric patients considered to be interesting and psychiatry enabling people to have rewarding relationships. Negative attitude toward areas on scientific information in psychiatry and psychotherapy's validity were obtained. While attitude was positive in areas of psychiatric knowledge and teaching, but female interns were lagging behind their male counterparts. Psychiatric treatment lessens worries and psychiatric illness should be considered at par with other medical illnesses, were most common positively viewed attitude.

CONCLUSION

Interns overall shared a neutral to negative ATP. Adequate rectification is required in existing medical curriculum, and more exposure to the subject is essential to improve the attitude of interns toward mental health.

Welcome biological breakthroughs, supply psychosocial insights

Human behaviour, emotions, and cognition are complex to understand and explain. It is even more difficult to understand the basis for abnormal behaviour, disturbed emotions, and impaired cognitions, something mental health professionals are trying for long. In these pursuits, psychiatry has traversed through eras of humours, witchcraft, spirits, psychoanalysis, and gradually deviated from other medical specialities. Now, with recent biological breakthroughs like advances in psychopharmacology, neuroimaging and genetics, increasingly more emphasis is being given to the biological model of psychiatric disorders. These new biological models have given a more scientific appearance to the speciality. It has also revolutionised the management strategies and outcome of many psychiatric disorders. However, this rapid development in biological understanding of psychiatry also leads to a new wave of reductionism. In an attempt to deduce everything in terms of neurons, neurochemicals, and genes, can we neglect psychosocial aspects of mental health? Patients' personality, expectations, motives, family background, sociocultural backgrounds continue to affect mental health no matter how much 'biological' psychiatry gets. Biological and psychosocial approaches are not mutually exclusive but complementary. Integrating them harmoniously is the skill psychiatry demands for comprehensive understanding of mental and behavioural disorders.

Psychiatric specialization as an option for medical students in the Indian context

There is a shortage of psychiatrists in India and psychiatry as a subject of specialization is not a preferred option among medical undergraduates. There is inadequate exposure to psychiatry during the medical undergraduate training in India which might contribute towards it. There are attempts to overcome the negative attitudes towards psychiatry and mental illness among medical undergraduates by changes in the curriculum. In this paper we attempt to review studies on attitudes of undergraduate students towards psychiatry and compare the results with findings from our own survey done as a part of International Study of Student Career Choice in Psychiatry (ISoSCCiP) project.

Recruiting medical students into psychiatry in lower income countries

There is a serious shortage of psychiatrists and poor recruitment of new psychiatry trainees worldwide. Low and middle income countries suffer disproportionately on many accounts. A negative attitude towards psychiatry is thought to contribute to poor recruitment of psychiatry trainees. Previous reviews have focused on the attitudes of medical students in high income countries, but factors relevant to attitude and recruitment may be different in lower income countries. Here we review studies of medical students' attitudes towards psychiatry from low and lower-middle income countries, summarize key themes which negatively influence attitudes, and suggest strategies for overcoming them. Major themes include stigma, perceived status of psychiatry, lack of psychiatric trainers, local cultural beliefs, poor working conditions, and quality of patient care.

How to teach psychiatry to medical undergraduates in India?: a model

Psychiatry is not considered important by most medical students. But knowledge of psychiatry is essential for all doctors as psychiatric problems are prevalent in the population either as part of other physical illnesses or independently. All medical practitioners need skills in communication and forming empathy and the ability to counsel that are learnt in psychiatry. Nearly all medical students feel psychiatry is not scientific enough and psychiatrists are peculiar. We need to make psychiatry interesting, and impart skills and techniques to practice psychiatry at the primary care level and in the process change the misconceptions students have of psychiatry. We present a model to accomplish this.