Senior Medical Students’ Attitudes Toward Psychiatry as a Career Choice Before and After an Undergraduate Psychiatry Internship in Iran

Religious affiliation and the intention to choose psychiatry as a specialty among physicians in training from 11 Latin American countries

“…Menegatti-Chequini et al (2016) found that more than 30% of Brazilian psychiatrists in their sample declared that they had no religious affiliation. Psychiatrists have also been described as highly sensitized and involved with social problems (Amini et al, 2013;Dura`-Vila`et al, 2011;Gowans et al, 2011;Lampe et al, 2010;Lyons & Janca, 2015;Shafranske, 1996;Shafranske, 2009). Curlin et al (2007a) reported that psychiatrists were more prone to take spiritual/religious aspects of the patient's experience into account than primary care physicians.…”

“…Factors known to be associated with specialty choice include: vocation; interest in psychiatry prior to medical school; exposure to personal or family history of psychiatric illness; greater interest in anthropology, humanities and social sciences; less interest in prestige; and the taking of elective classes or participation in extracurricular activities related to psychiatry (Amini et al, 2013;Farooq, Lydall & Bhugra, 2013;Gowans et al, 2011;Lampe et al, 2010). An important negative factor to take into account is the stigma held by other physicians and students towards psychiatry (Amini et al, 2013;Lyons & Janca, 2015). Stigma is usually related to the nature of the disorders, salary, and colleagues' perception, among others (Amini et al, 2013;Brown et al, 2016;Lampe et al, 2010;Lyons & Janca, 2015).…”

“…An important negative factor to take into account is the stigma held by other physicians and students towards psychiatry (Amini et al, 2013;Lyons & Janca, 2015). Stigma is usually related to the nature of the disorders, salary, and colleagues' perception, among others (Amini et al, 2013;Brown et al, 2016;Lampe et al, 2010;Lyons & Janca, 2015). However, studies investigating the choice of psychiatry have not addressed students' spirituality and religiosity -or their perception about these topics -as potential associated factors.…”

“…We also recognize that faith is not a factor that may be removed to increase recruitment in the field. However, the way students perceive the relationship between religion and psychiatry might be a potential target for interventiongiven that medical school has been identified as a critical period where students can engage with or reinforce the intention to choose the specialty (Amini et al, 2013;Farooq et al, 2013;Farooq et al, 2014;Gowans et al, 2011;Lampe et al, 2010). Therefore, our study aimed to test for a possible association between religious affiliation and the intention to choose psychiatry as a specialty among medical students in 11 Latin-American countries.…”

Changing Medical Students′ Attitudes to Psychiatry through Newer Teaching Techniques

“…Some studies have shown that psychiatric postings do change some of the attitudes of medical students, though many studies do not replicate this (Gulati, Das and Chavan, 2014,[ 5 ] Konwar, Pardal and Prakash et al ., 2012,[ 8 ] Amini, Moghaddam and Nejatisafa et al . 2013,[ 1 ] Lyons, 2014,[ 10 ] Fischel, Manna and Krivoy et al ., 2008). [ 3 ] Traditional teaching methods are directed more towards imparting knowledge.…”