Background: To evaluate students’ perception and attitude towards psychiatry in comparison with other specialities like medicine, surgery, paediatrics, obstetrics & gynaecology, orthopaedics, radio diagnosis and dermatology seems to be a global issue and is an essential part of programs to improve the status of the profession.

Methods: Perception of 98 1st year and 90 final year medical students from the Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla was recorded using a semi-structured questionnaire. Students provided their opinion about future career choices and perspective of these specialties in terms of work-life balance, challenging aspect, ability to help patients effectively, financial reward, reputation, and emotional stability; their preferences in life and interaction with psychiatrist and its impact.

Results: Psychiatry was ranked less attractive among majority of the specialities under study, but was found more attractive than dermatology. Surgery was a high priority for 40 (41%) students while psychiatry was a high priority in only 8 (8.2%) first year students, while in final year, medicine was a high priority for 29 (32.2%) while psychiatry was a high priority in only 12 (18.8%) students. Psychiatry had higher emotional stability but the reputation was lower among all the specialities in both groups. Those who like psychiatry attributed more importance to an interesting and challenging job than to prestige and financial reward.

Conclusion: Our study points out the fact that prejudices toward patients with mental dysfunctions and lack of confidence in the efficacy of psychiatric treatment should be specially targeted by the curriculum in the later part of undergraduate education.

Keywords: Attitude, psychiatry, medical students.

1. Saxena S, Thornicroft G, Knapp M, Whiteford H. Resources for mental health: scarcity, inequity, and inefficiency. Lancet.2007; 370: 878-89.
2. Guo WJ, Tsang A, Li T, Lee S. Psychiatric epidemiological surveys in China 1960-2010: how real is the increase of mental disorders? Curr Opin Psychiatry.2011; 24: 324-30.
3. Feifel D, Moutier CY, Swerdlow NR. Attitudes toward psychiatry as a prospective career among students entering medical school. Am J Psychiatry.1999; 156: 1397-02.
4. Sierles FS, Taylor MA. Decline of U.S. medical student career choice of psychiatry and what to do about it. Am J Psychiatry.1995; 152: 1416-26.
5. Dom G. Psychiatry, an attractive career choice? Tijdschr Psychiatr.2011; 53: 793-796.
6. Wiguna T, Yap KS, Tan BW, Siew T, Danaway J. Factors related to Choosing Psychiatry as a Future Medical Career among Medical Students at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Indonesia. East Asian Arch Psychiatry.2012; 22: 57-61.
7. Gowans MC, Wright BJ, Brenneis FR, Scott IM. Which students will choose a career in psychiatry? Can J Psychiatry. 2011; 56: 605-13.
8. Sierles FS, Dinwiddie SH, Patroi D, Atre-Vaidya N, Schrift MJ et al. Factors affecting medical student career choice of psychiatry from 1999 to 2001. Acad Psychiatry.2003; 27: 260-68.
9. “Mhgap: Mental Health Gap Action Programme: Scaling up care for mental, neurological and substance use disorders”, 2008. Available from: http://www.who.int/mental_health/mhgap_final_english.pdf [Accessed on 2018, May 15].
10. Gureje O, Hollins S, Botbol M, Javed A, Jorge M, Okech V, et al. Report of the WPA task force on brain drain. World Psychiatry. 2009;8:115-18.
11. Thirunavukarasu M, Thirunavukarasu P. Training and national deficit of psychiatrists in India — A critical analysis. Indian J Psychiatry. 2010;52:S83-8.
12. Praharaj SK, Behere RV, Deora S, Sharma PS. Psychiatric specialization as an option for medical students in the Indian context. Int Rev Psychiatry. 2013;25:419-24.
13. Tharyan P, John T, Tharyan A, Braganza D. Attitudes of ‘tomorrow’s doctors’ towards psychiatry and mental illness. Natl Med J India. 2001;14:355-59.
14. Robertson T, Walter G, Soh N, Hunt G, Cleary M et al. Medical students’ attitudes towards a career in psychiatry before and after viewing a promotional DVD. Australas Psychiatry.2009;17:311-17.
15. Laugharne R, Appiah-Poku J, Laugharne J, Shankar R. Attitudes toward psychiatry among final-year medical students in kumasi, ghana. Acad Psychiatry.2009; 33:71-75.
16. Ndetei DM, Khasakhala L, Ongecha-Owuor F, Kuria M, Mutiso V et al. Attitudes toward psychiatry: a survey of medical students at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. Acad Psychiatry.2008; 32:154-59.
17. Pailhez G, Bulbena A, Coll J, Ros S, Balon R. Attitudes and views on psychiatry: a comparison between Spanish and U.S. medical students. Acad Psychiatry.2005; 29: 82-91.
18. Koh KB. Medical students’ attitudes toward psychiatry in a Korean medical college. Yonsei Med J.1990;31:60-64.
19. Bhat S, D’souza L, Fernandez J. Factors influencing the career choices of medical graduates. J Clin Diagn Res 2012;6:61-64.
20. Kumar A, Mitra K, Nagarajan S, Poudel B. Factors influencing medical students’ choice of future specialization in medical sciences: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey from medical schools in china, Malaysia and regions of South Asian association for regional cooperation. N Am J Med Sci. 2014;6:119-25.
21. Kumar R, Dhaliwal U. Career choices of undergraduate medical students. Natl Med J India. 2011;24:166-69.
22. Baboolal NS, Hutchinson GA. Factors affecting future choice of specialty among first-year medical students of the University of the West Indies, Trinidad. Med Educ. 2007;41:50-56.
23. Wang X, Xiang X, Hao W, Liu T. Attitudes toward psychiatry as a prospective career among medical students in their pre-clinical Year in China- A pilot study. PLoS One. 2013;8:e73395.
24. Sartorius N, Gaebel W, Cleveland HR, Stuart H, Akiyama T, Arboleda-Flórez J, et al. WPA guidance on how to combat stigmatization of psychiatry and psychia-trists. World Psychiatry. 2010;9:131-44.

Dr Dinesh Dutt Sharma

Associate Professor, Dept of Psychiatry

Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla-1, Himachal Pradesh, India

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.