Medical students' attitudes towards psychotherapy: An intervention-based pre-post comparison

Background: Despite a wealth of studies on medical students' attitudes towa rds psychiatry in general, little is known about their specific attitudes t owards psychotherapy. There is no evidence on the flexibility of these atti tudes in the context of a curriculum-implemented psychotherapy information session. Objectives: To assess medical students' attitudes towards psychotherapy and short-term flexibility therein, with an introductory course on psychothera py as the relevant intervention for this pre-post comparison. Methods: A random sample of 159 advanced medical students completed a short questionnaire before and after a short course on psychotherapy. The questi onnaire consisted of indirect attitude measures towards psychotherapy (asso ciations and connotations), a likelihood rating for future training in psyc hotherapy, a statement about one's most preferred medical specialty for one 's future career, and basic demographics. Results: Participants' pre-interventional connotations of psychotherapy wer e predominantly positive. In the pre-post comparison, more than one third o f the connotation measures shifted substantially and favorably. Post-interv entionally, participants' distinctive static word association style regardi ng psychotherapy was attenuated in favor of a more differentiated style and an enlarged field of associations. The data are suggestive of significant preinterventional sex differences, with females holding more positive views towards psychotherapy and reporting a greater likelihood of future psychot herapeutic training. The data also suggest that the intervention acted diff erently upon the sexes. Likelihood ratings for future training in psychothe rapy did not decline after the course, despite the fact that the cost and d uration of training were mentioned in the course. Conclusions: Even minimal educational interventions can enhance medical stu dents' predominantly positive attitudes towards psychotherapy. This finding calls for further implementation of psychotherapy-related material in medi cal curricula.