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

INTRODUCTION 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.OBJECTIVES 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.METHODS 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.RESULTS 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.CONCLUSION 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.