O'Brien Aileen, Ashby G Alice, White Sarah, Crame Jordan
Population Health Sciences and Education, St George's, University of London , London , UK and.
J Ment Health. 2015 Jun;24(3):126-8. doi: 10.3109/09638237.2014.971149. Epub 2014 Dec 19.
Misconceptions about the role of a psychiatrist are anecdotally widespread but have been under researched.
This study aimed to establish views on training and working in psychiatry amongst preclinical medical students at a South London Medical School and amongst a general public sample.
A semi-structured online questionnaire was used to survey medical students, with a similar paper questionnaire being used to survey members of the public in a general practice waiting room using a convenience sampling method.
Strikingly, the majority of the public thought that psychiatrists did not need a medical degree (54%) or postgraduate training (56%). There were significant misconceptions about treatments used in mental health, for example 16% of the public sample thought psychiatrists never use medication and 31% of medical students (and 14% of the public) thought psychiatrists never use electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). In response to "do you believe a psychiatrist is able to know what people are thinking?", 45% of students and 57% of the public answered "sometimes".
The results have important implications for public education, as lack of awareness about psychiatry may inhibit help seeking for mental illness, and have a negative impact on recruitment to psychiatry amongst medical students.
关于精神科医生角色的误解在坊间广为流传，但相关研究较少。
本研究旨在了解伦敦南部一所医学院临床前医学生以及普通公众样本对精神科培训和工作的看法。
采用半结构化在线问卷对医学生进行调查，在一家全科诊所候诊室采用便利抽样法，用类似的纸质问卷对公众进行调查。
令人惊讶的是，大多数公众认为精神科医生不需要医学学位（54%）或研究生培训（56%）。对心理健康治疗方法存在重大误解，例如，16%的公众样本认为精神科医生从不使用药物，31%的医学生（以及14%的公众）认为精神科医生从不使用电休克疗法（ECT）。对于“你认为精神科医生能够知道人们在想什么吗？”这一问题，45%的学生和57%的公众回答“有时能”。
这些结果对公众教育具有重要意义，因为对精神科缺乏了解可能会抑制人们寻求精神疾病治疗的行为，并对医学生报考精神科产生负面影响。
