# Impact of Psychiatry Posting on Attitudes Toward Mental Illness: A Prospective Cohort Study of Medical Students From Three Universities

## TL;DR

A study found that psychiatry rotations improved medical students' attitudes toward mental illness, especially in specific domains.

## Contribution

The study demonstrates that psychiatry training can positively influence medical students' attitudes toward mental illness.

## Key findings

- Psychiatry rotations significantly improved attitudes in the domains of social restrictiveness and community mental health ideology.
- The length of posting, university, and posting site influenced the changes in attitudes.
- Demographic factors did not significantly affect students' attitudes toward mental illness.

## Abstract

Negative attitudes towards mental illness are known to exist among medical students in Nigeria. However, the effect of undergoing a rotation in psychiatry on their attitudes is uncertain.

It aimed to determine the effect of psychiatry posting during medical training on medical students’ attitudes toward mental illness and examine the association of posting-related and demographic factors with their attitudes.

It is a prospective cohort study in which 187 medical students from three different universities were followed up during their psychiatry postings in two different posting sites. Questionnaires containing basic demography, posting-related variables, and the Community Attitude to Mental Illness (CAMI) scale were administered to all available students before and after the rotation in psychiatry. A paired t-test was applied to test the differences in the CAMI scores before and after posting, while ANOVA and hierarchical regression were utilized to determine the association of variables with the CAMI scores.

There were significant differences between the pre-and post-rotation CAMI scores in CAMI's social restrictiveness (SR) and community mental health ideology (CMHI) domains, indicating improved attitudes. Demographic factors had no significant influence on the students’ attitudes, but the length of posting, university of the students, and posting sites had varying impacts.

Psychiatry rotation has a positive impact on students’ attitudes toward mental illness in both posting sites, particularly in the domains of SR and CMHI. This underscores the importance of psychiatry training in medical education in changing the attitudes of future healthcare professionals.