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General hospital specialists’ attitudes toward psychiatry: a cross-sectional survey in seven countries

OBJECTIVE: Psychiatric comorbidities are common in physical illness and significantly affect health outcomes. Attitudes of general hospital doctors toward psychiatry are important as they influence referral patterns and quality of care. Little is known about these attitudes and their cultural correl...

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Autores principales: Wimalaratne, Inoka Koshali, McCarthy, Jane, Broekman, Birit F P, Nauta, Klaas, Kathriarachchi, Samudra, Wickramasinghe, Anuprabha, Merkin, Alexander, Kursakov, Alexander, Gross, Raz, Amsalem, Doron, Wang, Xiaoping, Wang, Jun, de Rosalmeida Dantas, Clarissa, de Carvalho Pereira, Victoria, Menkes, David
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8576472/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34750150
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054173
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author Wimalaratne, Inoka Koshali
McCarthy, Jane
Broekman, Birit F P
Nauta, Klaas
Kathriarachchi, Samudra
Wickramasinghe, Anuprabha
Merkin, Alexander
Kursakov, Alexander
Gross, Raz
Amsalem, Doron
Wang, Xiaoping
Wang, Jun
de Rosalmeida Dantas, Clarissa
de Carvalho Pereira, Victoria
Menkes, David
author_facet Wimalaratne, Inoka Koshali
McCarthy, Jane
Broekman, Birit F P
Nauta, Klaas
Kathriarachchi, Samudra
Wickramasinghe, Anuprabha
Merkin, Alexander
Kursakov, Alexander
Gross, Raz
Amsalem, Doron
Wang, Xiaoping
Wang, Jun
de Rosalmeida Dantas, Clarissa
de Carvalho Pereira, Victoria
Menkes, David
author_sort Wimalaratne, Inoka Koshali
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVE: Psychiatric comorbidities are common in physical illness and significantly affect health outcomes. Attitudes of general hospital doctors toward psychiatry are important as they influence referral patterns and quality of care. Little is known about these attitudes and their cultural correlates. The aim of this study was to identify attitudes toward psychiatry among general hospital specialists in relation to culture of the practice setting and other clinician factors (gender, age, seniority and specialty). METHODS: A cross-sectional, descriptive study was carried out in seven countries (New Zealand, China, Sri Lanka, Russia, Israel, Brazil, the Netherlands). Data were collected from senior medical staff of various disciplines using an updated version of Mayou and Smith’s (1986) self-administered questionnaire. RESULTS: A total of 889 hospital doctors participated. While favourable attitudes toward both psychiatric consultation and management were endorsed by a majority, significant differences were also observed between countries. Subgroup differences were mostly confined to gender, acuity of practice setting and specialty. For example, female doctors in Russia (χ(2)=7.7, p=0.0056), China (χ(2)=9.2, p=0.0025) and the Netherlands (χ(2)=5.7, p=0.0174) endorsed more positive attitudes compared with their male counterparts, but this gender effect was not replicated in the total sample. Chronic care specialists were overall more inclined to manage patients’ emotional problems compared with those working in acute care (χ(2)=70.8, p (adjusted)<0.0001), a significant finding seen also in individual countries (China, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Russia). Physicians were more favourably disposed toward psychiatry compared with other specialists, especially surgeons, in all countries except Israel. CONCLUSIONS: This study adds to evidence for the association of medical attitudes with individual clinician factors and demonstrates that the influence of these factors varies by country. Understanding these issues may help to overcome barriers and improve quality of care provided to general hospital patients.
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spelling pubmed-85764722021-11-19 General hospital specialists’ attitudes toward psychiatry: a cross-sectional survey in seven countries Wimalaratne, Inoka Koshali McCarthy, Jane Broekman, Birit F P Nauta, Klaas Kathriarachchi, Samudra Wickramasinghe, Anuprabha Merkin, Alexander Kursakov, Alexander Gross, Raz Amsalem, Doron Wang, Xiaoping Wang, Jun de Rosalmeida Dantas, Clarissa de Carvalho Pereira, Victoria Menkes, David BMJ Open Mental Health OBJECTIVE: Psychiatric comorbidities are common in physical illness and significantly affect health outcomes. Attitudes of general hospital doctors toward psychiatry are important as they influence referral patterns and quality of care. Little is known about these attitudes and their cultural correlates. The aim of this study was to identify attitudes toward psychiatry among general hospital specialists in relation to culture of the practice setting and other clinician factors (gender, age, seniority and specialty). METHODS: A cross-sectional, descriptive study was carried out in seven countries (New Zealand, China, Sri Lanka, Russia, Israel, Brazil, the Netherlands). Data were collected from senior medical staff of various disciplines using an updated version of Mayou and Smith’s (1986) self-administered questionnaire. RESULTS: A total of 889 hospital doctors participated. While favourable attitudes toward both psychiatric consultation and management were endorsed by a majority, significant differences were also observed between countries. Subgroup differences were mostly confined to gender, acuity of practice setting and specialty. For example, female doctors in Russia (χ(2)=7.7, p=0.0056), China (χ(2)=9.2, p=0.0025) and the Netherlands (χ(2)=5.7, p=0.0174) endorsed more positive attitudes compared with their male counterparts, but this gender effect was not replicated in the total sample. Chronic care specialists were overall more inclined to manage patients’ emotional problems compared with those working in acute care (χ(2)=70.8, p (adjusted)<0.0001), a significant finding seen also in individual countries (China, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Russia). Physicians were more favourably disposed toward psychiatry compared with other specialists, especially surgeons, in all countries except Israel. CONCLUSIONS: This study adds to evidence for the association of medical attitudes with individual clinician factors and demonstrates that the influence of these factors varies by country. Understanding these issues may help to overcome barriers and improve quality of care provided to general hospital patients. BMJ Publishing Group 2021-11-08 /pmc/articles/PMC8576472/ /pubmed/34750150 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054173 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Mental Health
Wimalaratne, Inoka Koshali
McCarthy, Jane
Broekman, Birit F P
Nauta, Klaas
Kathriarachchi, Samudra
Wickramasinghe, Anuprabha
Merkin, Alexander
Kursakov, Alexander
Gross, Raz
Amsalem, Doron
Wang, Xiaoping
Wang, Jun
de Rosalmeida Dantas, Clarissa
de Carvalho Pereira, Victoria
Menkes, David
General hospital specialists’ attitudes toward psychiatry: a cross-sectional survey in seven countries
title General hospital specialists’ attitudes toward psychiatry: a cross-sectional survey in seven countries
title_full General hospital specialists’ attitudes toward psychiatry: a cross-sectional survey in seven countries
title_fullStr General hospital specialists’ attitudes toward psychiatry: a cross-sectional survey in seven countries
title_full_unstemmed General hospital specialists’ attitudes toward psychiatry: a cross-sectional survey in seven countries
title_short General hospital specialists’ attitudes toward psychiatry: a cross-sectional survey in seven countries
title_sort general hospital specialists’ attitudes toward psychiatry: a cross-sectional survey in seven countries
topic Mental Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8576472/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34750150
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054173
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