No abstract

Although neutrality and empathy are considered vital in the doctor-patient relationship, medical students revealed more negative attitudes than students of politics did, the latter's attitudes being similar to those of students of veterinary medicine. These findings suggest that educational and correcting interventions are required in medical training.

Various research findings, mostly from Anglo-American countries, evidence the medical profession to be strongly familial and further suggest that a medical family background may be associated with study success in medical undergraduates. This study explored the familial aggregation of the medical profession among 1-year cohort samples of medical and psychology students in Austria. Whereas physicians only amount to about 0.4% of the total Austrian population, 45.8% of final-year medical students reported any and 25.6% a first-degree medical relative. Male students more likely had physicians in their family than female students and both sexes more likely had male than female medical relatives. Male final-year medical students with first-degree medical relatives were significantly younger than those without, thus indicating faster study progress in this group. Physicians also ran in the families of psychology students, as did psychologists and psychotherapists. Implications of these findings, study limitations, and avenues for future research are discussed.

Moderate to severe depression goes along with a breakdown of mental capacity. Further research should focus on investigating changes in the capacity for mentalization in remission and changes in the course of psychotherapeutic treatments.

The results underline the importance of considering gender role stereotypes and suggest the significance of gender-sensitive attitudes in dealing with aggression and exploring attachment styles and reflective functioning.