Does medical education influence the attitudes of medical students towards individuals with mental health problems?

Objective: This survey aimed to investigate the effect of medical education on the attitudes of students towards individuals with mental health problems. Method: The first phase of the survey was conducted in 2002 with first-year medical students (n = 168) and the second phase was carried out in 2007 (n = 202) with sixth-year medical students. The questionnaire we used collected the students' sociodemographic data and their responses to propositions that reflected their attitudes towards individuals with mental health problems. A composite attitude index was developed based on the questions and propositions. The chi-square test and variance analysis were used to analyze the data. Results: Mean age of the first-and last-year students was 18.25 ± 0.88 and 23.46 ± 0.85 years, respectively. The percentage of students that had mental health problem or had a family member with mental health problem increased when they were sixth-year students (first year: 4.2% and 14.3%, p = 0.187, and 7.4% and 27.7%, p = 0.002, respectively). Among the first-year students, " nervousness"was the most common feeling towards people with mental health problems, versus "pity" among the sixth-year students. Compared to the first phase of the study, the frequency of the opinion, "a person with a mental health problem must be cared for by their family", was higher during the second phase (from 49.4% to 64.9%, p = 0.003). The percentage of sixth-year students that thought people with mental health problems can adapt to social life was lower than that of first-year students (94.6%, and 88.6%, respectively, p = 0.040). When the students became sixth-year students they developed more positive attitudes, such as "to abstain to talk" (p = 0.015), and "to share a room" (p = 0.008), and more negative attitudes towards "marrying an individual that had a family member with a mental health problem" (p = 0.007) compared to when they were first-year students. According to the year of education, there wasn't a significant difference between the mean composite attitude index score (p = 0.940). Conclusion: We recommended the use of new training methods to develop positive attitudes among medical students towards individuals with mental health problems.