Attitude to psychiatry three-year follow-up a cohort of Saudi medical students at their first post-graduate year

ABSTRACT

In a previous report the researcher described positive changes in the Saudi medical students' attitudes to psychiatry after psychiatry clerkship. This paper reports a three-year follow-up of the attitudes and changes in attitudes to psychiatry in the same subjects after they have chosen their specialties, using the same methods. The general attitude to psychiatry remained positive in both sexes. The participants' general attitudes to psychiatry in the middle of the first post-graduate year remained similar to those held at the end of the psychiatry clerkship. Despite the enduring favourable attitude to psychiatry there was no significant improvement in the recruitment into the specialty, with only 4% of the subjects choosing psychiatry as a specialty. There was a statistically significant increment in the percentage who agreed with the specific attitude "psychiatrists are held in poor regard by most other doctors". The study results emphasize that in Saudi Arabia, cultural attitudes to psychiatry and social as well as professional stigma act as opposing forces against recruitment of trainees in psychiatry. The implications of the finding are discussed