Impact of differences in psychiatry curriculum of undergraduate medical and physiotherapy students on their attitude towards psychiatry

• Published in: Indian journal of psychiatry Vol. 58; no. 2; pp. 208 - 211
• Main Authors: Bhise, Manik, Marwale, Arun, Deshmukh, Apoorva, Saoji, Sanjeev
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: India Wolters Kluwer - Medknow Publications 01-04-2016; Medknow Publications and Media Pvt. Ltd; Medknow Publications & Media Pvt. Ltd; Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd
• Subjects: Analysis; Attitudes; Brief Research Communication; Careers; Conflicts of interest; Curricula; Internal medicine; Medical education; Medicine; Mental disorders; Mental health care; Physicians; Psychology; Psychotherapy; Public speaking; Questionnaires; Society; Statistical analysis; Students; Study and teaching; Teaching; Teaching methods; India; Attendance; psychiatry curriculum; under-graduate students; attitude
• ISSN: 0019-5545; 1998-3794
• DOI: 10.4103/0019-5545.183780

Background: Negative attitude toward psychiatry (ATP) among medical students is a serious concern. Some studies have concluded that after training in the subject, attitude changes toward positive side. Currently in India, medical students have a less intense course without separate exam or binding to attend training whereas physiotherapy students have more intense course with separate subject exam and binding to attend training in psychiatry.
Objective: To ascertain and compare the positive and negative ATP in final year MBBS students and final year physiotherapy (BPTh) students who have completed psychiatry curriculum.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional study with semi-structured pro forma for sociodemographic variables and ATP-30 questionnaire to evaluate ATP of 94 medical and physiotherapy students each. Nonparametric methods were used for statistical analysis with appropriate tests of significance and P value was set at 0.05.
Results: Mean ATP-30 score for medical students was 91.9 (standard deviation [SD] =7.0) and that of physiotherapy students was 105.8 (SD = 9.7), this difference in two groups was highly significant (Kruskal-Wallis H = 81.3, df = 1, P < 0.001). Of all medical students, 36 (41.4%) had negative attitude while only 2 (2.1%) of the physiotherapy students had negative ATP (χ2 = 41.7, P < 0.001). Boys were 2.6 times more likely to have negative ATP than girls (relative risk = 2.6, P = 0.005).
Conclusions: Physiotherapy students with intense and planned training in psychiatry as an exam subject have significantly more positive ATP than medical students.