Impact of half-day clinical training in outpatient psychiatry on perception of mental illness by postgraduate interns

Aim: Lack of contact with patients with mental illness may contribute to mental health stigma. We conducted a half-day training program in the outpatient psychiatry clinic of a rural general hospital for postgraduate interns in Nagasaki University Hospital. Our study investigated the effectiveness of this program in reducing stigma toward mental illness. It also examined the association between an intern’s perception of mental illness and their consideration of psychiatry as a career.Methods: Participants were 12 interns at Nagasaki University Hospital who competed a pre- and post- training questionnaire. The questionnaire assessed perceptions of mental illness using a semantic differential scale and measured consideration of psychiatry as a career on a 7 point Likert scale. Paired t-tests were used to compare mean pre- and post-training scores on the semantic differential scale. Pearson’s correlation was used to examine associations between semantic differential scores and consideration of psychiatry as a career.Results: Post-training scores were higher than pre-training scores on the items “warm” (P = 0.003), “clean” (P = 0.009), “bright” (P = 0.001), and “calm” (P = 0.003) as associated with mental illness. Consideration of psychiatry as a career significantly correlated with post-training score on “warm” (r = 0.587, P = 0.045).Conclusion: Interns can develop positive perceptions of mental illness after a half-day training program in a psychiatry outpatient clinic. Perceptions of mental illness as “warm” after training correlated with consideration of psychiatry as a career