Perceptions about mental illness among pre-clinical medical students in Trinidad & Tobago

Perceptions about mental illness among medical practitioners are likely to determine their capacity to recognise, treat appropriately and refer patients who have mental health problems. It is therefore important that training of medical students in psychiatry is undertaken with knowledge of their attitudes to mental health disorders. We determined the perceptions of 108 pre-clinical medical students (69 males, 39 females; mean age 22 years) toward mental illness in Trinidad & Tobago by analysing their responses to a questionnaire based on a case vignette of a young man with a paranoid psychotic illness. 88% felt that medical treatment in hospital was the best means of treating the illness and 86% suggested that discharge should be conditional on regular visits to a doctor. 89% however opposed the patient's marrying into their families and 85% to his teaching their children. This was associated significantly with having a personal relationship with someone having a mental illness (p < 0.03). Surprisingly, 25% believed that mental illness could be caused by supernatural forces, particularly females who were almost twice as likely as males to express this belief.