Department of Neurosurgery, School of medicine, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan.
Department of Dermatology, School of medicine, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan.
BMC Psychiatry. 2023 Aug 18;23(1):604. doi: 10.1186/s12888-023-05037-8.
Depression is Jordan's most ravaging mental illness. Despite the growth of antidepressant use, only a handful of studies examine the factors affecting antidepressant knowledge among healthcare workers or medical students. Therefore, we aimed to explore the knowledge and attitudes towards antidepressants across Jordan's six medical schools.
Using a cross-sectional design, we investigated the knowledge and attitudes towards antidepressants through the Drug Attitude Inventory and a literature-validated knowledge domain. Clinical students from Jordan's six medical schools were recruited. Differences in knowledge and attitudes scores were examined by year of study, medical school among other factors. A multivariate linear regression model was utilized to assess predictors of knowledge.
We included a total of 1,234 participants representing Jordan's six major schools of medicine. About 14.9% of participants had a personal history of antidepressant use while 20.5% reported family history of psychiatric disease. The majority of students demonstrated favorable attitudes towards antidepressants (74.1%). Students demonstrated an average understanding of antidepressants' mechanism of action, side effects, but not indications in special populations. Senior medical students, higher GPA, higher family income, personal history of antidepressants, and family history of psychiatric illnesses were associated with significantly higher knowledge scores (all p-values < 0.001). In addition to attitudes scores, the aforementioned were positive predictors of knowledge scores in the multivariate model.
Medical students' knowledge towards antidepressants leaves room for significant improvement. Yet, it is evident that significant differences for both attitudes and knowledge exist across medical schools which may indicate a gap in either training or teaching methodology.
抑郁症是约旦最严重的精神疾病。尽管抗抑郁药的使用有所增加，但只有少数研究探讨了影响医疗保健工作者或医学生对抗抑郁药知识的因素。因此，我们旨在探讨约旦六所医学院校的抗抑郁药知识和态度。
采用横断面设计，通过药物态度量表和文献验证的知识领域调查了对抗抑郁药的知识和态度。招募了来自约旦六所医学院的临床学生。通过研究年限、医学院等因素检查知识和态度得分的差异。利用多元线性回归模型评估知识的预测因素。
我们共纳入了代表约旦六所主要医学院的 1234 名参与者。约 14.9%的参与者有抗抑郁药使用史，20.5%的参与者报告有精神疾病家族史。大多数学生对抗抑郁药持积极态度（74.1%）。学生对抗抑郁药作用机制、副作用有平均的了解，但对特殊人群的适应症了解较少。高年级医学生、较高的 GPA、较高的家庭收入、抗抑郁药使用史和精神疾病家族史与知识得分显著升高有关（均 P 值<0.001）。除了态度得分外，上述因素在多元模型中也是知识得分的正预测因素。
医学生对抗抑郁药的知识还有很大的提高空间。然而，显然不同医学院校在态度和知识方面存在显著差异，这可能表明培训或教学方法存在差距。
