Ganga Raju Godasi1, Raj Kiran Donthu2, Abdul Salaam Mohammed3, Ravi Shankar Pasam4, Raja Anirudh Yalamanchili5
BACKGROUND
Mental and behavioural disorders are prevalent in all societies. The stigma and
poor attitude towards mental illness and those with mental illness is well known.
Similarly, there also exists poor opinions about psychiatrists and psychiatric
medications among people. Non psychiatric doctors act as a bridge between the
psychiatrists and mentally ill people. This study was conducted to evaluate the
attitudes of non-psychiatric doctors towards psychiatrists, psychiatric medications,
and mental illness.
METHODS
The study design was cross sectional, conducted in a town of Andhra Pradesh. A
structured proforma was used to capture the sociodemographic details and to
measure attitudes towards psychiatrists and psychiatric medications. We used a
questionnaire used by Zieger et al. Similarly, to measure the attitudes towards
mental illness, belief towards mental illness (BTMI) used by Hirai and Clum was
used. The data was analysed using R language, and results obtained were
tabulated and discussed. Data was analysed using non parametric tests.
RESULTS
There were no significant negative attitudes of non-psychiatrists towards
psychiatrists and mental illness. But we found significant negative attitudes
expressed by medical specialists (P = 0.035) and those in academic settings (P =
0.020) towards psychiatric medications. On comparing the other demographic
details there were no significant negative attitudes towards psychiatric
medications.
CONCLUSIONS
Previous studies have found negative attitudes among non-psychiatrists towards
psychiatry, psychiatrists and mental illness. But our study found that there are
positive attitudes expressed by non-psychiatric doctors towards psychiatrists and
mental illness which is a good sign. We believe this is a changing trend towards
positive side when compared to past studies. Future studies should be longitudinal
and to keep in focus the new curriculum changes.
