title: Attitudes toward people with mental illness among medical students.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Globally, people with mental illness frequently encounter stigma, prejudice, and discrimination by public and health care professionals. Research related to medical students' attitudes toward people with mental illness is limited from India.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim was to assess and compare the attitudes toward people with mental illness among medical students'.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional descriptive study design was carried out among medical students, who were exposed (n = 115) and not exposed (n = 61) to psychiatry training using self-reporting questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our findings showed improvement in students' attitudes after exposure to psychiatry in benevolent (t = 2.510, P < 0.013) and stigmatization (t = 2.656, P < 0.009) domains. Further, gender, residence, and contact with mental illness were the factors that found to be influencing students' attitudes toward mental illness.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings of the present study suggest that psychiatric education proved to be effective in changing the attitudes of medical students toward mental illness to a certain extent. However, there is an urgent need to review the current curriculum to prepare undergraduate medical students to provide holistic care to the people with mental health problems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, College of Nursing, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Vijayalakshmi
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Poreddi
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Vydehi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Center, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Rohini
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Thimmaiah
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Suresh Bada
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Math
keywords: Attitudes; curriculum; medical students; psychiatry