THE IMAGE OF PSYCHIATRY AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS : CLINIC STUDY

The stigmatization of psychiatric disorders affects the general public but also health professionals, especially doctors and medical students, their attitudes appear more negative towards psychiatric pathologies. At the joint end, it is clear that medical students' interest in psychiatry as a career choice is low; while improving recruitment in psychiatry is more than ever a public health priority. This work is a "before/after" longitudinal study whose target population consists of 5th year medical students starting a psychiatry internship. The data collection was done through an anonymous self-survey with a scale psychometric: ATP-30 this compendium was made on the first and last day of the internship. Out of 90 students contacted we collected 82 actionable questionnaires. The psychiatry internship resulted in an increase in the average ATP-30 score from 111.62 ± 9.99 to 116.30± 9.88, confirming that this internship significantly improves the attitudes of the students in our sample towards psychiatry. Similarly, the frequency of choice of psychiatry is higher at the end of the internship or (41.4%) that at the beginning of the latter (26.8%), an increase in the number of the group wishing to do psychiatry by 14.6% at the end of the internship.