Doctors' perspective, knowledge, and attitude toward childhood psychiatric illnesses

Abstract

Background: The main aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge, management practices, and attitudes of a group of resident doctors in a tertiary care center toward children with psychiatric illness (CPI). Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in a training hospital and included 100 resident doctors. Data collection was done by self-administered semi-structured questionnaire. Analysis was done using SPSS version 17.0.1. Results: Many respondents had positive values about CPI and recognized prejudice in the population against them. The referral of CPI to the psychiatrist is a common practice among the doctors believing that primary intervention holds an important entity in management. The majority of the residents were unsatisfied not only with their but also their colleagues' knowledge, and familiarity with the variety and management of CPI. The residents were of the opinion that the undergraduate medical school training did not give enough importance to the study of CPI. Conclusions: The nonpsychiatrists do not feel confident in managing CPI complaining about the inadequate undergraduate medical training regarding CPI. There was not a clear relationship between the undergraduate medical training, referral practices, and satisfaction regarding the management of CPI. In this way, there are other barriers, perceived or not, to providing care to CPI by the doctors, and they need to be addressed in the medical undergraduate curriculum and continuing medical education.