Medical Students' Perceptions of Electroconvulsive Therapy: The Impact of Direct Exposure

Although electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has proven to be an efficacious treatment, the available literature indicates that some medical students have unfavorable perceptions of ECT. To the authors' knowledge, prior studies have not examined the impact of medical student participation in ECT on their perceptions of this modality. To determine if direct participation and observation affect medical students' perceptions of ECT differently, these 2 teaching methods were compared.

Participants were third year medical students who volunteered to complete 2 questionnaires to examine their perceptions regarding various psychiatric treatment modalities including ECT. The first questionnaire was administered before the start of the clerkship, and the second was given before the conclusion of the clerkship.

Most participants expressed a substantially more favorable view of ECT in the second questionnaire compared with the first. This change occurred similarly regardless of whether medical students observed or participated in ECT. Medical students' perceptions of the other treatment modalities did not change substantially during the study period.

The results of the current study do not reflect the superiority of direct participation over observation in improving medical students' perceptions of ECT. This may indicate that both instructional methods are equivalent. Alternatively, these results may reflect a ceiling effect because most participants expressed a very positive view of ECT.