Attitude towards Mental illness and Psychiatry among the Medical students and Interns in a University Medical College

摘要

Introduction: Medical students tend to have a neutral or negative attitude to Psychiatry as a discipline. This study was initiated to explore the attitude towards Mental illness and Psychiatry among the Medical students and Interns in Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences (KUSMS).Method: A cross-sectional Questionnaire based study was conducted among the Medical students and Interns at Dhulikhel Hospital (Kathmandu University Hospital). Two self-rating scales; Attitudes towards psychiatry (ATP-30) and Attitudes to mental illness (AMI) were used to assess attitudes towards mental illness and Psychiatry among the total 159 subjects. Descriptive statistics and independent sample t-test applied using SPSS-16 for analysis.Results: Among the total 159 subjects, 56.6% were males and 27.7% were Interns. Comparison of means of each item in ATP-30 and AMI was done between Males and Females, Medical students and Interns, First semester and Ninth semester students. Most of the subjects showed neutral attitude towards all the scoring items; though there were a few significant differences in mean scores of some items in group wise comparison.                                                             Conclusions: Overall attitudes towards Mental illness and Psychiatry among the Medical students and Interns in our Medical School were positive or neutral. A further study with medical students from different institutions is needed to get a detail nationwide picture.                                  Key words: Attitude, Interns, Medical Students, Mental illness, Psychiatry.