Attitudes of house-physicians towards self-poisoning patients

Abstract

Eighty-two house-physicians filled in a questionnaire concerning the care of self-poisoning patients with special emphasis on training and attitudes. These recently qualified doctors dealt with large numbers of such patients and expressed dissatisfaction with their training in this respect. Hostile attitudes towards these patients developed most clearly at those district hospitals where psychiatrists are rarely available. During their 6 months as a house-physician, doctors at the teaching hospital became more interested in making a full assessment of these patients whereas those at other hospitals became less so. Better training at both undergraduate and pre-registration level is needed to make house-physicians more able and more willing to fully assess these patients.

Deliberate self harm

“…[69][70][71][72][73][74] Similar negative attitudes are also found in the psychiatric services. 75 Self harmers suVer from the stigma of psychiatric problems, and they are often seen as undeserving and detracting from the clinical care of others whose illnesses are not perceived as self inflicted.…”

Perceived competence and attitudes towards patients with suicidal behaviour: a survey of general practitioners, psychiatrists and internists

“…In a study by Creed and Pfeffer, the results showed more positive attitudes among physicians towards somatic diagnoses than self harm [25]. There is no available validated scale for this purpose, so in the present study a new self rating scale was used in order to determine whether this was still present and compare the current attitudes to somatic diagnoses and substance misuse with these findings.…”

Accident and emergency staff's perceptions of deliberate self‐harm: Attributions, emotions and willingness to help

“…The general picture is that people who harm themselves are not popular with health services staff (e.g. Roman, Bancroft,& Skrimshire, 1975; Creed & Pfeffer, 1981; Platt & Salter, 1987; Alston & Robinson, 1992). However, there has been no clear attempt to identify factors that may be influential in staff judgments of patients presenting with deliberate self‐harm.…”