title: Attitudes of Brazilian Medical Students Towards Psychiatric Patients and Mental Illness: A Quantitative Study Before and After Completing the Psychiatric Clerkship.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The authors evaluated whether a psychiatric clerkship reduces stigmatized attitudes towards people with mental illness among medical students.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 56-item questionnaire was used to assess the attitudes of medical students towards patients with mental illness and their beliefs about its causes before and after their participation in their psychiatric clerkship at a major medical school in Rio de Janeiro. Exploratory factor analysis identified four factors, reflecting "social acceptance of people with mental illness," "normalizing roles for people with mental illness in society," "non-belief in supernatural causes for mental illness," and "belief in bio-psychosocial causes for mental illness." Analysis of variance was used to evaluate changes in these factors before and after the clerkship.
  
  
  RESULTS
  One significant difference was identified with a higher score on the factor representing social acceptance after as compared to before the clerkship (p = 0.0074). No significant differences were observed on the other factors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Participation in a psychiatric clerkship was associated with greater social acceptance but not with improvement on other attitudinal factors. This may reflect ceiling effects in responses before the clerkship concerning supernatural and bio-psychosocial beliefs about causes of mental illness that left little room for change.
authors.affiliation: IPUB-UFRJ, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. hgrochaneto@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Helio Gomes
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: da Rocha Neto
authors.affiliation: Yale Medical School, New Haven, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Robert A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Rosenheck
authors.affiliation: Yale Medical School, New Haven, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Elina A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Stefanovics
authors.affiliation: IPUB-UFRJ, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: Maria Tavares
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Cavalcanti
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001938:Brazil; D002982:Clinical Clerkship; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders; D028642:Persons with Psychiatric Disorders; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000193:education*; D057545:Social Stigma; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attitude; Medical students; Mental disorders; Mentally Ill persons; Social stigma