Attitudes of medical students towards the mentally ill

Numerous studies conducted during the past decades indicate that the public's attitude toward the mentally ill is strongly prejudiced, Since the attitude of the general public also has an effect on community-based psychiatric care, we must ask how public opinion might be influenced. One possible approach could be through so-called key community leaders those who are highly respected in society because of their competence in a particular area. Doctors belong to this group of people. For this reason we questioned medical students, as future key community leaders, with respect to their attitudes toward the mentally ill within the framework of their first contact with psychiatric patients during their studies. In order to make a direct comparison possible, we interviewed a sample of the Mannheim population who live in a part of the city where a variety of complementary facilities have been set up. The comparison shows that medical students do not have a more positive attitude toward the mentally ill; in fact, in certain areas they have an even more negative attitude toward the mentally ill than the general population has. We were not able to establish what effect teaching has with respect to changing attitudes.