Undergraduate Psychiatric-Education And Attitudes Of Medical-Students Towards Psychiatry

A questionnaire eliciting attitudes toward psychiatry from medical students was administered to one medical school class before and after a full-time Behavioral Sciences block in the first year of medical school and before and after the psychiatry clerkship in the third year. The data suggest that attitudes of medical students toward psychiatry can be appreciably enhanced and maintained by comprehensive quality programs in undergraduate psychiatry. The data further suggest that a Behavioral Sciences course is an untapped and unrecognized source of attitude enhancement.