Undergraduate medical students’ attitude toward psychiatry: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: The present study aims at understanding the attitude of the undergraduate medical students toward psychiatry, mental health and psychiatric disorders and their treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study. The study involved random distribution of the questionnaire to the participants in an institute's festival. The authors utilized a semi-structured questionnaire to evaluate the perceptions, attitudes and beliefs of the undergraduate students to psychiatry, mental health and psychiatric disorders. The data were analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences version 10.0 software. The analysis involved descriptive analysis of the data. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: A total of 210 of people responded to the questionnaire given to them. Of these, 164 were considered for further analysis as the rest had not provided the complete background information or the questionnaire was not completed. The undergraduate medical students had multiple lacunae in their knowledge toward psychiatry, psychiatric disorders, psychiatric patients and psychiatric treatment. A potential contributory fact could be the neglect of psychiatry as a discipline at the undergraduate level. The undergraduate medical students had multiple lacunae in their knowledge toward psychiatry, psychiatric disorders, psychiatric patients and psychiatric treatment.