Attitudes towards people with mental illness among medical students: A qualitative research

Abstract

Psychiatric illnesses affect more than 450 million people worldwide, with several consequences for those who are affected, along with the presence of high numbers of discrimination, stigmatization, and negative attitudes of the general population. These negative attitudes have been observed even in health professionals, negatively impacting on the quality of care, adherence to treatment and well-being of affected users. This study describes attitudes of medical students towards people with psychiatric illness from a qualitative perspective, through the analysis of thematic content of 12 semi-structured interviews conducted with first-to fourth-year medical students. Among the results, a diversity of identified attitudes outstands, including empathy, frustration, indifference and rejection, uncertainty and fear, tolerance and social acceptance. As a discussion, it is stated that most of the findings were consistent with the international literature, however there are new findings that are not described, highlighting the attitude of fear of being harmed and the rejection towards people with psychiatric pathologies. The design and implementation of educative interventions that facilitate contact with users, in order to reduce stigma and negative attitudes in future medical professionals, is concluded as an urgent challenge. Finally, it is proposed for future research to develop longitudinal and comparative studies that consider measuring the effectiveness of these interventions.

Innovative Technology–Based Interventions to Reduce Stigma Toward People With Mental Illness: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

“…As stigma is a complex social phenomenon transversally present in the society [ 1 - 6 ], innovative interventions involving use of technologies can be an effective tool for its reduction. However, one challenge in the implementation of this type of intervention is its adaptability to different contexts and countries, and so future interventions should include cross-cultural comparison.…”

“…Thus, discrimination, prejudice, and stereotypes present in society not only severely impact the recovery process, quality of life, and well-being of people with mental illnesses and their families, but also represent the main gap in accessing specialized mental health services by the general population [ 4 , 5 ]. The aforesaid has great relevance in the global context, where research has shown the presence of high levels of discrimination, stigma, and prejudice toward those impacted by mental health problems, especially schizophrenia and bipolar disorder [ 6 , 7 ].…”

Innovative Technology–Based Interventions to Reduce Stigma Toward People With Mental Illness: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis (Preprint)

“…As stigma is a complex social phenomenon transversally present in the society [1][2][3][4][5][6], innovative interventions involving use of technologies can be an effective tool for its reduction. However, one challenge in the implementation of this type of intervention is its adaptability to different contexts and countries, and so future interventions should include cross-cultural comparison.…”

Assess the Attitude Towards Mental Illness Among Nurses Working in Selected Tertiary Care Hospital

“…Romero et al (2019) mentioned that mental health professionals showed a positive attitude toward mental illness but also a relative support to coercive treatments. There are differences in attitudes modulated by professional category and setting (Rivas, 2021). Negative perspectives of nurses towards mental illnesses have been documented in multiple nations (Natalia, 2019;Koutra, 2022;Balasubramanian et al, 2023;Li et al, 2023).…”