title: Impact of differences in psychiatry curriculum of undergraduate medical and physiotherapy students on their attitude towards psychiatry.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Negative attitude toward psychiatry (ATP) among medical students is a serious concern. Some studies have concluded that after training in the subject, attitude changes toward positive side. Currently in India, medical students have a less intense course without separate exam or binding to attend training whereas physiotherapy students have more intense course with separate subject exam and binding to attend training in psychiatry.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To ascertain and compare the positive and negative ATP in final year MBBS students and final year physiotherapy (BPTh) students who have completed psychiatry curriculum.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a cross-sectional study with semi-structured pro forma for sociodemographic variables and ATP-30 questionnaire to evaluate ATP of 94 medical and physiotherapy students each. Nonparametric methods were used for statistical analysis with appropriate tests of significance and P value was set at 0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean ATP-30 score for medical students was 91.9 (standard deviation [SD] =7.0) and that of physiotherapy students was 105.8 (SD = 9.7), this difference in two groups was highly significant (Kruskal-Wallis H = 81.3, df = 1, P < 0.001). Of all medical students, 36 (41.4%) had negative attitude while only 2 (2.1%) of the physiotherapy students had negative ATP (χ(2) = 41.7, P < 0.001). Boys were 2.6 times more likely to have negative ATP than girls (relative risk = 2.6, P = 0.005).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Physiotherapy students with intense and planned training in psychiatry as an exam subject have significantly more positive ATP than medical students.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, MGM's Medical College, Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India.
authors.forename: Manik Changoji
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Bhise
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, MGM's Medical College, Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India.
authors.forename: Arun Vishwambharrao
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Marwale
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, MGM's Medical College, Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India.
authors.forename: Apoorva Sadgun
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Deshmukh
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, MGM's Medical College, Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India.
authors.forename: Sanjeev Gopal
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Saoji
keywords: Attendance; attitude; psychiatry curriculum; under-graduate students