Improving medical student attitudes towards people with schizophrenia

To develop and evaluate an intervention for final year medical students to reduce stigma against people with schizophrenia.

A total of 87 students participated in a 3-h workshop that included both a contact component (a DVD of a young man with schizophrenia) and an experience of simulated auditory hallucinations. Attitudes to schizophrenia were evaluated using the Attitudes to Mental Illness Questionnaire (AMIQ), completed at the beginning and end of the workshop.

There was a significant improvement in mean AMIQ scores after participating in the workshop. Students with more negative attitudes before the workshop showed the most significant improvement, whilst there was little change for students who held more positive attitudes.

A workshop combining a DVD narrative by a young person with schizophrenia and simulated auditory hallucinations is an effective teaching tool to improve medical students' attitudes to people with schizophrenia.