Attitudes towards people with mental illness among medical students: A qualitative research

Abstract

Psychiatric illnesses affect more than 450 million people worldwide, with several consequences for those who are affected, along with the presence of high numbers of discrimination, stigmatization, and negative attitudes of the general population. These negative attitudes have been observed even in health professionals, negatively impacting on the quality of care, adherence to treatment and well-being of affected users. This study describes attitudes of medical students towards people with psychiatric illness from a qualitative perspective, through the analysis of thematic content of 12 semi-structured interviews conducted with first- to fourth-year medical students. Among the results, a diversity of identified attitudes outstands, including empathy, frustration, indifference and rejection, uncertainty and fear, tolerance and social acceptance. As a discussion, it is stated that most of the findings were consistent with the international literature, however there are new findings that are not described, highlighting the attitude of fear of being harmed and the rejection towards people with psychiatric pathologies. The design and implementation of educative interventions that facilitate contact with users, in order to reduce stigma and negative attitudes in future medical professionals, is concluded as an urgent challenge. Finally, it is proposed for future research to develop longitudinal and comparative studies that consider measuring the effectiveness of these interventions.