Portrayal of psychiatrists in Hindi movies released in the first decade of the 21st century.

CONTEXT

Of late, there has been an increase in the number of psychiatrists shown in Hindi movies. There is dearth of systematic research that focuses specifically upon the depiction of psychiatrists in Hindi cinema.

AIM

To explore the portrayal of psychiatrists in recent Hindi cinema.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Twenty-six Hindi movies released between January 2001 and March 2010 portraying 33 'psychiatrist' characters in a main or a secondary (but significant) role, were reviewed and data related to the personal attributes and professional conduct of the movie psychiatrists was collected.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

The portrayal of psychiatrists in Hindi movies released in the first decade of the 21st century is unflattering. Hindi movies depicted psychiatrists as most likely to be male, middle-aged, and friendly in their attitude towards the patients. 42.4% of them were clinically incompetent, and only 30.3% could make an accurate diagnosis. 39.4% of them breached professional ethics. Eight (24. 2%) transgressed non-sexual boundaries, whereas five (15.2%) violated both sexual and non-sexual boundaries. The most common clinical/treatment setting was outpatient (53.8%), and pharmacotherapy was the most common treatment modality used. Treatment outcome was depicted positive in only 23.1% of the movies analyzed.