Psychiatric Attitudes of Young Physicians: Implications for Teaching

Over a two-year period 219 physicians were studied with respect to their attitudes toward psychiatry. From the large amount of data three specifics are highlighted: 1) In this young physician population of diverse origin and medical training, the over-all attitude was that psychiatry is a respected branch of medicine and that psychotherapy is efficacious. However, the physicians saw the patients as anxiety-provoking, unpleasant, untrustworthy, disabled, and dissimilar from themselves. 2) Those with favorable attitudes were made less anxious by psychiatric patients, and had higher opinions of interview techniques and their effectiveness, psychiatric knowledge, psychiatrists, etc. 3) The physicians with favorable attitudes toward psychiatry have had significantly more exposure to psychiatry courses in medical school.