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Tunisian medical students’ attitudes and views of psychiatry:
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 July 2023
Abstract
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Introduction
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there is a chronic shortage of psychiatrists on a global scale. In Tunisia, we only have 287 psychiatric specialists, the equivalent of 0,23 per 10 000 habitants in 2017. There is a strong and urgent need to increase the recruitment and retention of doctors in psychiatry, starting from their young years.
Objectives
We aimed to study medical students’ attitudes and views of psychiatry, and their career choices in psychiatry.
Methods
A systematic random sample of medical from two medical schools anonymously completed a questionnaire, distributed via the internet, covering the mental illness: clinicians’ attitudes (MICA) scale, their choice of psychiatry as a career, and the possible associated factors.
Results
A total of 118 medical students participated in the study, with 50% in the second and first years of medical school. The mean age was 21.00 ± 12.2 years. The sex ratio (M/F) was 0.24. We found a personal history of mental health problems in 33.1% of the students.
The mean score of the attitude of health care professionals towards mental illness was 43.61 ± 8.22 out of 96. The results were moderately positive (lowest possible score 25, highest possible score 67) and the female student’s attitude was slightly –but not significantly more positive than male students (male 46.4, female 42.4).
Negative attitudes were reported about the interactions with people with mental health problems, fear of disclosure to colleagues or friends about mental health problems, and confidence in the capabilities of assessing mental health problems in general medicine. No correlation was observed between the immersion clerkship of psychiatry and the MICA scores.
Of the 118 respondents to this question, 35 (29.8%) were most interested in surgical specialties, 35 (29.8%) in medical specialties, and 10 participants (8.5%) were most keen on psychiatry.
Conclusions
Stigma against psychiatry is widespread among medical students. The negative attitudes about mental health and mental diseases may be addressed through educational programs.
Disclosure of Interest
None Declared
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- Information
- European Psychiatry , Volume 66 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 31st European Congress of Psychiatry , March 2023 , pp. S1122 - S1123
- Creative Commons
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.- Copyright
- © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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