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Does attending psychiatry teaching lectures change attitude of medical students towards people with mental illness? A longitudinal survey from nepal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2021

Suresh Thapaliya ,
Shizu Singh ,
Bharat Goit ,
Sandesh Sawant  and
Anoop Krishna Gupta
Suresh Thapaliya*
Affiliation:
Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust
Shizu Singh
Affiliation:
National Medical College and Teaching Hospital
Bharat Goit
Affiliation:
National Medical College and Teaching Hospital
Sandesh Sawant
Affiliation:
National Medical College and Teaching Hospital
Anoop Krishna Gupta
Affiliation:
National Medical College and Teaching Hospital
*
*corresponding author.
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Abstract

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Aims

The study aims to compare the attitude of early clinical year medical students towards people with mental illness at the beginning and the end of their psychiatry teaching schedule. It hypothesizes that long exposure to psychiatry lectures can help to reduce the negative attitude.

Background

Health professionals are also known to harbour negative attitude towards people with mental illness. Reducing stigma among medical students is crucial to shape the attitude of future health professionals towards people with mental illness. However, the effect of Psychiatry training on the attitude of the medical students shows mixed results.

Method

It was a prospective longitudinal study conducted among fourth year medical students affiliated with a teaching hospital in Southern Nepal as an initiative to improve quality of Psychiatry training for medical students. The students who gave their consent for participation were assessed for their attitude at the beginning, after the first two introductory lectures and at the end of the Psychiatry lecture-based teaching schedule (36 two weekly lectures in 5 month period), using self-administered 16-item Mental Illness Clinician's Attitudes Scale (MICA-2) ‘medical students version’ questionnaire in English language. Permission was taken from the author of the study to use the scale. IRB approval was taken prior to the study.

Result

A total of 95 (approx. 67%) students participated in the study. At the first follow-up i.e. second week, (n = 85), there was no significant difference in negative attitude as assessed by MICA score (p = 0.47). However, at six months follow-up (n = 82), the negative attitude significantly differed compared to the baseline (p < 0.001).

Conclusion

While brief lectures about mental illness can provide some knowledge about mental illness, long term exposure to psychiatry lectures can reduce attitude of medical students on people with mental illness. Hence, it is also crucial to incorporate academic contents that reduce negative attitude about people with mental illness.

Financial declaration: The study was self-funded by the department of Psychiatry at National Medical College and Teaching Hospital, Parsa, Nepal.

Type
Education and Training
Information
BJPsych Open , Volume 7 , Supplement S1: Abstracts of the RCPsych Virtual International Congress 2021, 21–24 June , June 2021 , pp. S159
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://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
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal College of Psychiatrists
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