Perceção dos alunos de medicina face à doença mental

: estudo exploratório sobre diferenças de género

Abstract

The stigma associated to mental illness is a remaining reality which has currently become a research priority defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) (OMS, 2005). Over the last years, we have seen an abundant and, in general, stimulating scientific production in this regard, which seeks the understanding of this problematic as well as the setting of different levels of intervention. The present study fits into a second phase of the project “Perception of medical students towards mental illness”, of Association ENCONTRAR+SE, underway since 2009. Specifically, in a descriptive exploratory perspective, we have tried to assess the perception of medical students towards mental illness and psychiatry, focusing on identification and characterization of possible differences in gender. The Portuguese Translation of the 2.0 version of the Mental Illness: Clinician’s Attitudes Scale – MICA (Kassam et al., 2010) was used as data collection instrument. The sampling, with an equivalent distribution over both genders, was made up of 50 students attending medicine at four different Portuguese High School Institutions. The results met in the studied population point towards the presence of stigmatizing attitudes towards mental illness (Global Score of MICA = 36.42; SD = 6.85), although there were no relevant differences found as far as MICA’s global score is concerned, according to the studied social-demographic characteristics, gender included. However, the analysis by item has revealed relevant differences in specific items, according to variables as “Gender”, “School Year”, Have you ever had contact with anyone bearing a mental illness during your clinical work?” and “Would you like to specialize in Psychiatry?”. Given the bibliography consulted, it turns out that the results obtained are consistent with the analysed theoretical references. The most obvious implications of this study indicate the importance of a redefinition and incentive of new educational strategies on the study of medicine.

Date of Award	2013
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Pedro Dias (Supervisor)