Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine, Kalamazoo, MI, USA.
Acad Psychiatry. 2022 Feb;46(1):128-132. doi: 10.1007/s40596-021-01525-9. Epub 2021 Sep 9.
Many psychiatry residency programs are actively incorporating neuroscience training into their curricula; however, relatively little scholarship exploring neuroscience and psychiatry integration in undergraduate medical education has been conducted. This study investigated second-year, pre-clerkship medical students' perceptions on the relationship between neuroscience and psychiatry following foundational neuroscience and behavior instruction to identify their views before they enter clerkships.
A mixed methods design combined qualitative analysis of medical students' essays in response to the prompt: "What is the relationship between neuroscience and psychiatry?" with quantitative analysis of survey responses on a 7-point scale.
Ninety-three percent of the class participated in the study (n = 77). Learners rated neuroscience as important for understanding and treating psychiatric disorders, albeit less important for psychiatric compared to neurological disorders. Using applied thematic analysis, the authors identified qualitative themes. Specifically, participants recognized neuroscience as a foundational science for psychiatry, but some emphasized that factors other than neuroscience are needed to explain psychiatric disorders. Some students perceived neuroscience and psychiatry as complementary approaches to understanding the brain and behavior. Others identified a role for neuroscience in reducing the stigma of psychiatric disorders and thereby improving access to psychiatric care.
The quantitative and qualitative findings reinforced each other and provided novel insight to pre-clerkship medical students' views on the relevance of neuroscience for psychiatry. Educating all medical students, not just psychiatry residents, on the neuroscience of psychiatric disorders may better equip the next generation of physicians, regardless of specialty, to care for their patients with psychiatric conditions.
许多精神病学住院医师培训计划正在积极将神经科学培训纳入其课程；然而，在本科医学教育中探索神经科学与精神病学整合的相对较少。本研究调查了二年级，预实习医学生在接受基础神经科学和行为学指导后对神经科学与精神病学之间关系的看法，以了解他们在进入实习之前的观点。
混合方法设计将医学生对提示的论文的定性分析（“神经科学与精神病学之间的关系是什么？”）与关于 7 点量表的调查回复的定量分析相结合。
93%的班级（n=77）参加了研究。学习者认为神经科学对于理解和治疗精神疾病很重要，尽管与神经疾病相比，对精神疾病的重要性较低。使用应用主题分析，作者确定了定性主题。具体来说，参与者认识到神经科学是精神病学的基础科学，但有些人强调，除了神经科学之外，还需要其他因素来解释精神障碍。一些学生认为神经科学和精神病学是理解大脑和行为的互补方法。其他人认为神经科学在减少精神障碍的污名方面发挥作用，从而改善精神保健的获取。
定量和定性的发现相互加强，并为预实习医学生对神经科学与精神病学相关性的看法提供了新的见解。向所有医学生（不仅仅是精神病学住院医师）讲授精神障碍的神经科学知识，可能会使下一代医生（无论专业如何）更好地照顾有精神疾病的患者。
