Perceptions about mental illness among pre-clinical medical students in Trinidad & Tobago

Perceptions about mental illness among medical practitioners are likely to determine their capacity to recognise, treat appropriately and refer patients who have mental health problems. It is therefore important that training of medical students in psychiatry is undertaken with knowledge of their attitudes to mental health disorders. We determined the perceptions of 108 pre-clinical medical students (69 males, 39 females; mean age 22 years) toward mental illness in Trinidad & Tobago by analysing their responses to a questionnaire based on a case vignette of a young man with a paranoid psychotic illness. 88felt that medical treatment in hospital was the best means of treating the illness and 86suggested that discharge should be conditional on regular visits to a doctor. 89however opposed the patient's marrying into their families and 85to his teaching their children. This was associated significantly with having a personal relationship with someone having a mental illness (p < 0.03). Surprisingly, 25believed that mental illness could be caused by supernatural forces, particularly females who were almost twice as likely as males to express this belief.

Psychiatric symptoms and an anterior cranial fossa meningioma

We present a case of a patient admitted to a psychiatric hospital with psychotic symptoms and cognitive impairment but who was subsequently found to have an anterior interhemispheric falx meningioma. There must be a high index of suspicion for organic brain disease in patients over age 45 years presenting with psychotic symptoms and seizures for the first time.