Attitudes Towards Psychiatry in Lebanese Medical Students: What Are the Factors that Could Lead to a More Favorable Outlook?

Abstract

Objective The authors aimed to assess the attitudes towards psychiatry of all Lebanese medical students, as well as the factors that could have led to these attitudes, whether favorable or not. Methods In this cross-sectional study, the authors ran a questionnaire among a sample of Lebanese medical students from all medical faculties, regions in Lebanon, and years of medical school, using the ATP-30 scale and the WHO-5 well-being index. The answers from the 607 participants were statistically analyzed on SPSS version 23.0. Results Among participants, 95.1% had a positive attitude towards psychiatry, reflecting a favorable outlook among Lebanese medical students overall. The average ATP-30 score in our sample was 111.95 out of 150 (SD = 12.55), which is in the range of countries of higher socio-economic level such as Germany and Switzerland. Also, 26.5% of participants reported that they consider psychiatry as a potential career choice. No demographic factor had any influence on the ATP-30 score. In the multivariate analysis, only two factors resulted in favorable attitudes: exposure to a patient with a diagnosed psychiatric illness in the student’s surroundings and a lower WHO-5 well-being index. Conclusion This study’s results do not fit into the traditional “developed vs. developing countries” paradigm. However, Lebanon still has a lot of challenges to face in order to provide quality mental healthcare.

Attitudes of medical students toward psychiatry in Eastern Mediterranean Region: A systematic review

“…Regarding the geographical distribution of the reports, the studies were conducted in seven different countries within the EMR; three studies came from Pakistan ( 27 , 44 , 48 ), two from Iran ( 49 , 50 ), and others from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Egypt, Bahrain and Oman ( n = 5) ( 43 , 45 – 47 , 51 ). Figure 2 depicts the geographical distribution of the reviewed studies.…”

The Importance of Exploring Attitudes Toward Psychiatry, Past, and Present

“…For example, in the USA, approximately half of the 8 million visits for depression yearly occur in primary care clinics, and in the UK, 90% of mental health care takes place solely in this setting [2]. Given the emigration of specialists from developing to developed countries, this relative shortage of specialists is likely even more of a concern in other areas of the world [3,4]. Gauging medical student attitudes toward psychiatry provides not only a glimpse of how future physicians feel about patients with psychiatric disease but also information about their perceptions of psychiatrists and the field in general.…”

“…Four articles in the December 2021 issue of Academic Psychiatry [3,4,7,8] add to the existing literature on medical student attitudes toward psychiatry worldwide. "Revisiting the ATP 30: The Factor Structure of a Scale Measuring Medical Students' Attitudes Towards Psychiatry" [4] reexamines the ATP-30 [5], which was originally found to have no meaningful subscales.…”

“…In "Attitudes Towards Psychiatry in Lebanese Medical Students: What Are the Factors that Could Lead to a More Favorable Outlook?" [3], El Hage et al completed a cross-sectional study on a sample of pre-medical and medical students across the country using the ATP-30. Interestingly, in an area of the world that the authors describe as still "surrounded by stigma," student attitudes toward psychiatry were like that of several European nations.…”

“…These findings should be interpreted carefully, however, as pre-medical students were included in the data, and the actual number of students who ultimately specialized in psychiatry was not calculated. As far as the impact these results might have on the care of patients within Lebanon, additional caution is warranted, as 40% of physicians decide to leave the country upon completion of training [3].…”