Images of psychiatry and psychiatrists
Open accessAbstract
Objective: This study surveyed medical teaching faculty to determine their attitudes toward psychiatry and psychiatrists. Method: We conducted a multisite survey of a probability sample of 1057 teaching medical faculty members from 15 academic teaching centers in the United Kingdom, Europe, and Asia stratified by early, middle, and late career stage. The average response rate across countries was 65%. Results: The outstanding findings were that 90% of respondents considered that psychiatrists were not good role models for medical students, 84% thought psychiatric patients were unsuitable to be treated outside of specialized facilities, and 73% thought psychiatric patients were emotionally draining. We noted statistically significant differences by country, gender, career stage, and specialty. Conclusion: These results highlight why recruitment into psychiatry is problematic in many countries and suggest that greater attention should be given to improving the perception of psychiatrists as good role models and the efficacy of psychiatric treatments.
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Psychiatry more often than other medical specialties faces a poor public image as both a profession and a scientific discipline.
“The issue of public trust may be particularly relevant for psychiatry, which, more often than other medical specialties, has to face a poor public image as both a profession and a scientific discipline [240][241][242][243][244][245] .”
From Ethical challenges in contemporary psychiatry: an overview and an appraisal of possible strategies and research needs (2024) · cites this paper as [241]
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- Authors
- Stuart, H., Sartorius, N., Liinamaa, T., & the Images Study Group
- Affiliations
- Queen's University (CA)
- Association for the Improvement of Mental Health Programs Geneva Switzerland
- Corresponding author
- Stuart, H.
- Venue
- Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2014-12-14
- Volume
- 131
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 21-28
- ISSN
- 0001-690X (ISSN-L)
- 1600-0447
- PMC
- PMC4293155
- OpenAlex
- W2007898789
- Cited by
- 90
- References
- 30
- Citations by year
- 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 10
- FWCI
- 16.30
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Aberdeen University Research Archive (Aberdeen University) (submittedVersion)
- Queen Mary Research Online (Queen Mary University of London) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Funders
- Foundation for the Improvement of Mental Health Programs (n/a)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Diversity and Career in Medicine
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout
- Keywords
- attitudes toward psychiatry, psychiatric patients, career stages, gender differences, cross-national comparison
- MeSH terms
- Asia, Attitude of Health Personnel, Career Choice, Europe, Faculty, Female, United Kingdom, Humans, Male, Psychiatry, Surveys and Questionnaires, Sex Distribution
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