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

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.