Attitude Towards Psychiatry and Its Possible Association with Alexithymia Among Medical Students

Objective: Psychiatry has gained an increasing importance in medical undergraduate curricula around the world in the last few decades. Attitudes towards psychiatry (ATP) among medical students have been studied extensively in developed and developing countries. ATP and a career choice in psychiatry appear to be associated with various factors including demographics, personality, and social variables. In the present study, our aim was to investigate attitude towards psychiatry and its possible association to alexithymia among medical students. Methods: The study design was cross-sectional. Study sample consisted of first (n=85) and second (n=73) year preclinical students, fifth (n=39), and sixth (n=58) year clinical students during 2013-2014 academic year. All participants were asked to complete the Attitude Towards Psychiatry 30 (ATP-30), the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), and a socio demographic query form. Results: The mean ATP score for respondents was 106.07 (SD=13.05). Results revealed that male students had a significantly more positive attitude than females (p=0.001). It was found that there was a negative linear relationship between students' ATP score and academic year (p<0.001). Students who obtained significantly higher scores on the ATP scale were those who did not intend to select psychiatry as their career (p<0.001). When items from the ATP scale showing significant difference (p<0.05) between clinical and preclinical groups were evaluated, overall eight items except one clinic group had higher scores on the negatively phrased items. Finally, we found no significant difference in the ATP scores between alexithymic students and non-alexithymic students (p>0.05). Conclusion: Afyon Kocatepe University medical students have a moderate positive attitude towards psychiatry. Male students had more positive attitude than females. Interestingly, there was a negative linear relationship between student's ATP scores and their academic year. Our results should not be seen as representative of whole medical students in Turkey, but as indicative of current trends. So, further national representative sample research is needed to verify our findings. Early contact with psychiatric practice, positive role models and mentors, and developing effective educational approaches could improve perceived value of specialty and positive attitudes towards psychiatry.