What they think of us: A study of teaching medical specialists’ attitude towards psychiatry in India

CONTEXT: Attitudes of teaching medical specialists are important in shaping medical students’ attitudes toward psychiatry. Data on attitudes of teaching medical specialists of India toward psychiatry are limited. AIMS: The aim was to study the attitude of teaching medical specialists of an academic medical center in East India toward psychiatry. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We administered attitude toward psychiatry-30 (ATP 30) scale to teaching medical specialists of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar, based on convenience sampling. Of 104 specialists contacted, 88 returned the completed questionnaire. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: We carried out descriptive statistical analysis and expressed results in mean and standard deviation. We analyzed the association of demographic characteristics, specialization, and duration of professional experience with total ATP scores using Chi-square test. We used subgroup analysis to compare mean ATP scores in different demographic and professional groups. We used independent t-test and ANOVA for between group comparisons. RESULTS: The response rate was 84.62% with a mean ATP score of 88.60. Female gender and having a family member with mental illness was significantly associated with favorable ATP. Notable findings were that 97% of participants were favorable toward patients with psychiatric illness, 90% felt psychiatric interventions as effective whereas 87% found psychiatry unappealing and 52% said that they would not have liked to be a psychiatrist. CONCLUSIONS: While favorable attitudes toward patients with psychiatric illness and psychiatric interventions may mean better patient care; unfavorable attitudes toward psychiatry as a career choice may adversely affect postgraduate recruitment rates.