Attitude towards psychiatry and its possible association with alexithymia among medical students

• DOI: 10.5455/jmood.20150420075513
• Publication Date: 2015-06-19T11:39:23Z
• Authors: Ahmet Alpaslan; Ugur Kocak; Kerem Coskun; Omer Ozbulut; Arda Yesil
• Keywords: 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; 4. Education

Objective: Psychiatry has gained an increasing importance in medical undergraduate curricula around the world in the last few decades. Attitudes towards psychiatry (ATP) among medical students have been studied extensively in developed and developing countries. ATP and a career choice in psychiatry appear to be associated with various factors including demographics, personality, and social variables. In the present study, our aim was to investigate attitude towards psychiatry and its possible association to alexithymia among medical students. Methods: The study design was cross-sectional. Study sample consisted of first (n=85) and second (n=73) year preclinical students, fifth (n=39), and sixth (n=58) year clinical students during 2013–2014 academic year. All participants were asked to complete the Attitude Towards Psychiatry 30 (ATP-30), the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), and a socio demographic query form. Results: The mean ATP score for respondents was 106.07 (SD=13.05). Results revealed that male students had a significantly more positive attitude than females (p=0.001). It was found that there was a negative linear relationship between students’ ATP score and academic year (p