Abstract

FEIJO, Lorena Pinho et al. Diminishing the Stigma around Mental Disorder following Medical Internship in Psychiatry at Two Institutions in Fortaleza (CE). Rev. Bras. Educ. Med. [online]. 2019, vol.43, n.4, pp.141-150.  Epub Sep 12, 2019. ISSN 1981-5271.  https://doi.org/10.1590/1981-52712015v43n4rb20190027.

Historically, there is stigma associated to several diseases. There are widespread stigma and prejudice regarding mental illness throughout the world and research has shown that the general population has limited knowledge about mental illness. One mental disorder in particular, schizophrenia, is highly stigmatized. As members of society, medical students are not immune to stigma assigned to people with mental disorders. Several studies have suggested that the psychiatric training, especially when involving direct contact with the patient, such as medical internship, can have a positive impact on the medical student through their direct engagement in patient care, interest in participating in other activities such as therapy group management, case management, and gaining an understanding that patients with psychiatric conditions can be treated successfully. Most doctors, however, receive little training when interacting with mental illness patients. They usually feel uncomfortable or ineffective in communicating with them, even regarding physical complaints. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether the internship in a psychiatric hospital in Fortaleza reduces the stigma of medical students in relation to mental illness. AQ-9 validated questionnaire was applied to medical students in the initial period of the internship in psychiatry and repeated at the end of the period. From a total sample of 88 students, 37 (42%) were male and 51 (58%) were female, and the mean age was 24.68 years. There was a noticeable difference between the first three domains of AQ-9, which showed a significant decrease in pity (p = 0.029), danger (p = 0.004) and fear (p < 0.001). Stigma does seem to reside in the student population analyzed and the psychiatry internship of the two medical schools studied significantly reduced the results in three of the 9 domains evaluated. Of the sociodemographic variables, only gender influenced the result. Female students presented higher scores than male students in relation to the fear domain while male students presented a higher average than their female counterparts in relation to segregation. The importance of the psychiatry internship which goes beyond technical learning is reinforced, since it has the capacity to reduce stigma in relation to psychiatric, and especially schizophrenic, patients.

Keywords : Stigma; Medical Internship; Mental Disorder; Medical Education.

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