Medical students′ attitude toward suicide attempters

Abstract

Background:Majority of health professionals have unfavorable attitudes toward the patients presenting with self-harm, which further compromises their therapeutic endeavors and outcomes.Objectives:This study was aimed to assess the medical students' attitudes toward suicide attempters.Materials and Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care medical institute of Haryana, a Northern state of India. Two hundred and five final year medical students were recruited through total enumeration method. “Suicide Opinion Questionnaire” was administered to assess their attitudes toward suicide attempters.Results:Only minority had previous exposure of managing any suicidal patient and attended suicide prevention programs. Majority agreed for suicide attempters being lonely and depressed. Nearly half of the students reported small family, disturbed interpersonal relationship, weak personality, self-punishment approach, cultural inhibitions in emotional expression, national instability, and disbelief in afterlife, as a major push to attempt suicide. Compared to boys, girls reported the greater contribution of weak personality and self-destructive behaviors and lesser contribution of family disturbances and religious convictions as suicide triggers. They held favorable attitude for only one-third of the attitudinal statement, and they were uncertain for two-third of the attitudinal statements.Conclusions:Such a high proportion of uncertain responses imply toward lack of awareness and clinical expertise for managing suicide attempters. It also signifies the urgent need for enhancing their educational and clinical exposure, to improve their attitudes toward patients presenting with self-harm.

Effectiveness of Brief Educational Training on Medical Students' Attitude toward Suicide Prevention

“…Furthermore, the sample was predominantly male, and one previous study noted that girls had a greater negative attitude than boys about suicide. 9 Hence, our study findings could be influenced by the sociodemographic profile.…”

“…It has been used in Indian studies and has been found to not only have high test-retest reliability but also good internal consistency. 9 …”

“… 8 A study on final-year medical students from Haryana found that almost two-thirds of the respondents had poor awareness about suicide, and only half had a favorable attitude toward suicide prevention. 9 10 Similarly, 50% of nursing students in north India and Jodhpur harbored a positive attitude toward the prevention of suicide. 11 12 The majority of these respondents in all the above studies had no exposure to any programs focusing on management or prevention of suicide.…”

Change in attitude towards suicide with current undergraduate training in psychiatry: a cross-sectional study

“…Stigmatising attitudes of health care professionals towards mental illness can impede treatment provided for patients suffering from psychiatric problems. 6 N. Nebhimani et al 7 in their study among final year medical students in Haryana, found that only one-third of the students had favourable attitudes towards suicide attempters. M. Nebhimani et al 8 had conducted a similar study among nursing students and found favourable attitudes towards suicide attempters in the majority of students.…”

Medical Students and Suicide Prevention: Training, Education, and Personal Risks

“…Regarding the first, the majority of health professionals have unfavorable attitudes toward patients' self-harm, which might compromise their therapeutic endeavors and outcomes. Several studies have investigated this topic in medical students, using different tools (Oncü et al, 2008 ; Palmieri et al, 2008 ; Yousuf et al, 2013 ; Chan et al, 2014 ; Hashimoto et al, 2014 ; Nebhinani et al, 2016 ), and have suggested an association between medical students' attitudes toward suicide and appropriate therapeutic responses to suicidal individuals (Hashimoto et al, 2014 ). Students' knowledge and attitudes toward suicide have been described as changing during the years of training.…”