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Medical students' attitudes to psychiatry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

D. G. Wilkinson ,
S. Greeer  and
B. K. Toone
D. G. Wilkinson*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, King's College Hospital, London
S. Greeer
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, King's College Hospital, London
B. K. Toone
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, King's College Hospital, London
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr D. G. Wilkinson, MRC Unit for Epidemiological Studies in Psychiatry, University Department of Psychiatry, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Morningside Park, Edinburgh EH10 5HS.
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Synopsis

A questionnaire was developed to elicit medical students' attitudes to psychiatry. All 94 second year clinical students at a London teaching hospital completed the instrument before and after an 8-week psychiatric clerkship. Although two-thirds of the sample had mixed feelings about psychiatry initially, by the end of the clerkship the students' general attitude to psychiatry had changed significantly in a favourable direction. Analysis of 18 specific attitudes to psychiatry revealed that the students' first responses showed anticipatory bias and lack of uniformity. Later, however, only two specific attitudes had changed significantly: more students agreed that ‘problems presented by psychiatric patients are often particularly interesting and challenging’, and more of them disagreed with the statement that ‘psychiatric patients, generally speaking, are not easy to like’. The sexes differed on one attitude; more males than females agreed that “psychiatry is too inexact; it seems to lack a proper scientific basis”. Finally, the proportion of students who considered the possibility of specializing in psychiatry rose from 6 to 17% during the clerkship. The students' reasons for or against such a career are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , February 1983 , pp. 185 - 192
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

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