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Does clinical exposure to patients in medical school affect trainee doctors' attitudes towards mental disorders and patients?--A pilot study

Tan SMK 1 , Azmi MT 2 , Reddy JP 3 , Shaharom MH 4 , Rosdinom R 5 , Maniam T 6 Show all authors , Ruzanna ZZ 7 , Minas IH 8

Affiliations 

  • 1 S M K Tan, Adv Master Child & Adol Psych. Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Yaacob Latif, Cheras, Kuala Lumpur
  • 2 M T Azmi, MPH. Department of Community Health, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Yaacob Latif, Cheras, Kuala Lumpur
  • 3 J P Reddy, MMed Psych. Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Yaacob Latif, Cheras, Kuala Lumpur
  • 4 M H Shaharom, MMed Psych. Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Yaacob Latif, Cheras, Kuala Lumpur
  • 5 R Rosdinom, MMed Psych. Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Yaacob Latif, Cheras, Kuala Lumpur
  • 6 T Maniam, MPM. Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Yaacob Latif, Cheras, Kuala Lumpur
  • 7 Z Z Ruzanna, MMed Psych. Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Yaacob Latif, Cheras, Kuala Lumpur
  • 8 I H Minas, FRANZCP. Centre for International Mental Health, School of Population Health, The University of Melbourne, Australia
Med J Malaysia, 2005 Aug;60(3):328-37.
PMID: 16379188

Abstract

Stigmatising attitudes towards mental illness may improve with clinical exposure during medical school training. Attitudes of 48 fourth year medical students in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia were assessed before and after their compulsory attachment in Psychiatry, using the Attitude Towards Psychiatry-30 (ATP) and the Attitude towards Mental Illness (AMI) questionnaires. ATP scores improved significantly with training (104.8 and 114.4, pre- and post-attachment respectively) as did AMI scores (63.4 and 68.1 respectively). Both improvements were statistically significant. (ATP: z = 4.55, p < 0.0005) (AMI: z = 3.75, p < 0.0005). Attitudes towards mental illness appeared to have become more favourable with clinical training in psychiatry.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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