Attitudes toward schizophrenia among Tunisian family medicine residents and non-medical students

ABSTRACT Background Although primary care physicians are highly involved in the detection and management of schizophrenia since the early stages, prior research has shown that they hold negative attitudes toward patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. We aimed to compare attitudes towards schizophrenia between family medicine residents and non-medical students. Method This was a cross-sectional study. A 18-item questionnaire concerning attitudes toward schizophrenia was used. Results The two participant groups held similar attitudes in terms of “social distance”, “belief of dangerousness” and “skepticism regarding treatment”. After controlling for confounders, help-seeking intentions contributed negatively to the prediction of attitudes toward schizophrenia in the non-medical students, and accounted for 5.3% of their variance. Conclusions Implementing anti-stigma programs in medical schools, reviewing the current medical curriculum and the family medicine residency programme to help improve future physicians’ attitudes and prepare them to provide primary mental health care to young help-seekers who experience psychosis should be given priority attention.