Interdependency of Attitudes,Diagnostic Assessments and Therapeutic Recommendations of Medical Students Towards Mental Patients

Abstract

Interdependencies of attitudes towards vignettes of mentally ill patients and the professional approach of medical students measured by means of diagnostic assessments and therapeutic distance were studied. First, the findings indicate that the attitudes towards the vignettes depended on the behavioral characteristics of each patient presented in the vignettes. Thus, the levels on four attitudinal subscales were different for each of the patients. Second, the two variables of the professional approach of the students towards the patients, i.e., the diagnostic assessment and the therapeutic distance, were dependent on the attitudes towards the patients. The findings indicate that the more disturbed a patient is, and the less he is diagnosed as mentally ill, the more he is rejected from treatment, and the more negative the students' attitudes are towards him.

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