Improving the image of psychiatry and psychiatrists: Results of a French national survey

Abstract

BackgroundA decline of recruitment into psychiatry has been observed in low and high income countries. It has been suggested that the negative image of psychiatrists may play a role in this issue. Thus, one mission of the AFFEP (French National Association of Psychiatric Trainees) is to improve the image of psychiatry and to fight the related stigma.ObjectiveThis study aimed to highlight prejudices about psychiatric trainees.MethodsThis study is a descriptive cross-sectional survey conducted toward French residents specialized in psychiatry, anaesthesia, neurology, paediatrics, orthopaedic surgery or general medicine, between June and July 2013. An invitation email and an anonymous web-based auto-questionnaire were sent to the residents through their national associations mailing-lists. AFFEP local representatives also disseminated the survey to psychiatric trainees. The survey, hosted by the MODALISA software was made of four sections:– sociodemographic data;– school records;– prejudices from the other specialities towards psychiatric trainees;– professional identity.A statistical analysis was performed using MODALISA in order to describe and compare the data.ResultsOne thousand two hundred and ninty-six trainees participated in the study, including 760 psychiatrists, 253 residents in general practice, 123 anaesthetists, 60 neurologists, 57 paediatrics and 43 orthopaedics. 56% of the participants think that psychiatrists are odd trainees with previous history of mental health, 42% consider they are not doctors, and 37% describe them as lazy persons. Comparisons of personal history cases did not show any significant difference between psychiatric trainees and non-psychiatric trainees (12.6% vs. 9,3%, P = 0.074). Besides, the results show that almost all psychiatric trainees (95%) are happy becoming a psychiatrist.ConclusionsThese results suggest that prejudices about psychiatric trainees exist and are wrong. They will allow to work on the image of psychiatry and psychiatrists, to communicate about the great satisfaction of the psychiatric trainees and to break down old “cliché”.