Comparison of attitude towards Psychiatry as a speciality between undergraduate students and interns in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Nowadays, a declining interest in psychiatry as well in the professional arena is seen. This attitude is significant for Interns and an important study phase of medical UGs for extreme care of psychiatric patients. The aim was to study and compare the attitude of undergraduate students and medical interns towards psychiatry. It was a cross-sectional study done at Saveetha Medical College and Hospital, Thandalam, Chennai, where a comparison between medical interns and undergraduate students weremade. The study sample consisted of about 100 interns and 200 medical undergraduates who gave their consent for this study. The Attitude towards psychiatry (ATP) questionnaire consisting of 30 questions was given and from the data collected, the mean scores were calculated and analyzed using the Student t-test by SPSS version20. The medical undergraduates exhibited a more positive attitude towards psychiatry than interns (P-value estimated was 0.001). However, only 15% of interns and 7% of medical undergraduates strongly agreed and wanted to pursue psychiatry as their profession. Interns showing negative attitude in psychiatry may be due to strange stereotypic remarks made by peers, existing stigma towards psychiatry, less clinical rotations and less hours of teaching during the undergraduate days.