German medical students' attitudes toward psychiatry - Study with an extended German-version of the ATP-30

Medical students' attitudes toward psychiatry are very important for the fu ture care of psychiatric patients and the recruitment of qualified graduate s. We examined the attitudes of 105 German medical students toward psychiat ry using a German translation of the ATP-30, a reliable, self-administered questionnaire. In spite of a marked interest in psychiatry, most students t hought it improbable that they would become psychiatrists. Attitudes toward psychiatry were generally positive (ATP-30 score:104.6+/-13.4, where 90 re presents middle,or neither positive nor negative) but showed clear differen ces in some aspects. Attitudes toward psychotherapy were markedly positive, while those toward psychiatric therapy in general or the scientific basis of psychiatry were less positive. We could find no influence of sex on the ATP score, whereas students having previous experience with psychiatry show ed more positive attitudes towards it.