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Evaluation of US Medical Student Bias Toward Mental Health Before and After First-Year Pre-clinical Psychiatry Education

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Abstract

Objective

Much of mental health care is provided by non-psychiatric providers, and unfortunately, bias toward patients with mental health conditions leads to worsened outcomes. The authors endeavored to determine if pre-clinical medical student psychiatry education had an impact on these perceptions.

Methods

All 366 first-year medical students at Indiana University were invited to participate in a survey that consisted of the Mental Illness: Clinician’s Attitudes version 2 (MICA-2) and six supplemental questions, pre- and post-course.

Results

One hundred seventeen students completed both surveys. The pre- and post-course means were 36.6 and 33.6, a change of − 2.9 (paired t-test p-value < 0.001), indicating a reduction in bias.

Conclusions

These results suggest that pre-clinical education can lead to a measurable decrease in bias in medical students early in training. Unfortunately, individual question results and free responses continue to highlight significant bias in US medical students against mental illness and the field of psychiatry. Health care educators should be aware of these biases and their potential impact on patient outcomes so that these harmful perceptions can be targeted.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The use of the MICA-2 and 4 was with permission of the authors and without any change to the wording per their direction. The authors wish to acknowledge the Neuroscience and Behavior Course Management Team, specifically Drs. Robert Sweazey and Jennelle Richardson for their support. We would also like to thank Dr. Melissa Cyders for statistical support and sharing her expertise with SPSS. Drs. Brennan Schiller, Jonathan Chastain, Alexander Thomas, David Scofield, and David Schargorodsky contributed their time and talent to the psychiatry portion of the Neuroscience and Behavior course upon which we examined reductions in bias. Dr. Laura Quast also contributed to scoring questions 20 and 21 and the authors wish to express our thanks for her help. Finally, Drs. Smith, Opperman, McCann, Jivens, Giust, and Plawecki express their gratitude to the Department of Psychiatry for their support of the educational tract in the psychiatric residency program and support of faculty teaching efforts.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA

    Alyssa C. Smith, Joseph P. McCann, Morgan P. Jivens, Julianne Giust, Leah Wetherill & Martin H. Plawecki

  2. Central Michigan University College of Medicine, Saginaw, MI, USA

    Michael J. Opperman

Authors
  1. Alyssa C. Smith
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  2. Michael J. Opperman
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  3. Joseph P. McCann
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  4. Morgan P. Jivens
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  5. Julianne Giust
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  6. Leah Wetherill
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  7. Martin H. Plawecki
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Martin H. Plawecki.

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Declarations

This study design was approved by the Indiana University institutional review board. Participants were given an informed consent statement preceding the survey, and participation was optional.

Disclosures

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

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Smith, A.C., Opperman, M.J., McCann, J.P. et al. Evaluation of US Medical Student Bias Toward Mental Health Before and After First-Year Pre-clinical Psychiatry Education. Acad Psychiatry 47, 653–658 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-023-01829-y

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