Medical students' views of psychiatry. Does teaching have any effect?

Medical students' views of the subjects: Psychiatry, Neurology and Surgery were studied before and after a nine week course which included Psychiatry and Neurology. Surgery was not being taught and was regarded as a control subject. Visual analogue measures of each subject as a career possibility, its importance and its interest were obtained in addition to a ranking for career choice of eight specialties. In addition, students' attitudes to psychiatrists, neurologists and surgeons (as control) were studied using semantic differential scores. The scores on the subjects showed changes favourable to Psychiatry after teaching which were not paralleled in Neurology or Surgery. The semantic differential scores clearly discriminated the three specialists; there were small changes after teaching but the broad differences in attitude to the specialists remained. Some evidence is presented that the more favourable changes towards Psychiatry were related to the quality and intensity of teaching.