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Reducing Stigma Toward Psychiatry Among Medical Students: A Multicenter Controlled Trial.
Doron Amsalem1,2,3, Doron Gothelf2,3,4, Alexandra Dorman3
1Child Psychiatry Division, Edmond and Lily Safra Children's Hospital, Sheba Medical Center, 52621, Tel Hashomer, Israel. doron.amsalem@gmail.com.
The Primary Care Companion for CNS Disorders
|March 6, 2020
Summary
A novel antistigma intervention curriculum effectively reduced medical students' stigma toward psychiatry and mental illness. The program involved direct contact with individuals experiencing serious mental illness (SMI) and facilitated discussions.
Area of Science:
- Medical Education
- Psychiatry
- Public Health
Background:
- Stigma towards psychiatry and mental illness impacts medical students' perceptions and career choices.
- Developing effective antistigma interventions is crucial for improving mental healthcare.
- Previous interventions have shown limited success in addressing deep-seated prejudices.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the efficacy of a novel antistigma intervention curriculum (ASIC) in mitigating stigma among medical students.
- To assess changes in attitudes towards psychiatry and individuals with serious mental illness (SMI).
Main Methods:
- A quasi-experimental design involved 220 medical students in central Israel, divided into intervention (n=57) and control (n=163) groups.
- The intervention included direct, informal encounters with individuals with SMI during remission, followed by supervised small-group discussions.
- Attitudes Toward Psychiatry (ATP-30) and Attitudes Toward Mental Illness (AMI) scales were administered at the beginning and end of the psychiatry rotation.
Main Results:
- Significant reductions in stigma were observed in the intervention group compared to the control group for both attitudes toward psychiatry and psychiatric patients (P < .001).
- The intervention also positively influenced attitudes towards psychiatry as a career choice, despite this not being an explicit goal (P < .001).
Conclusions:
- The ASIC, incorporating experiential learning with individuals with SMI and guided reflection, is effective in reducing stigma in medical students.
- This approach shows promise for improving future physicians' attitudes and potentially enhancing mental healthcare delivery.
- Further research is recommended to ascertain the long-term impact of the ASIC on destigmatization.
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