E3 Journal of Medical Research
E3 Journal of Medical Research Vol. 3 (3) pp. 035-038, March 2014; © E3 Journals; ISSN 2276-9900
Attitudes of Psychiatry Residents and Undergraduate Medical Students from Turkey toward Handling of Dementia in Psychiatry Clinics
Murat Emul3 * , Omer Yanartas1 , Saleh Ayman1 , Akif Tasdemir2 , Abdullah Genc2 , Tevfik Kalelioglu2 , Ecem Tevruz3 , Meryem Unel3 , Gjergji Sinani11 Department of Psychiatry, University of Marmara, Istanbul, Turkey
2 Departments of Psychiatry, Bakirkoy Research and Training Hospital for Psychiatry and Neurology / Istanbul, Turkey
3 Department of Psychiatry, Istanbul University, Medical School of Cerrahpasa, Istanbul, Turkey
*Corresponding Author E-mail: hmuratemul@hotmail.com
Accepted 24 February 2014
Abstract
We aimed to investigate the attitudes of medical clerkship students towards dementia and its management the context of psychiatry practice. There were 90 psychiatry residents from two different mental health hospitals and 90 undergraduate medical students who had finished both neurology and psychiatry clerkships from Medical Schools of Cerrahpasa and Marmara. Forty percent of the psychiatry residents believe that “neurologist must treat dementia because, it is a brain disease†and 34% of them suggested neurologic management rather than psychiatric care because of brain involvement. Surprisingly, 35.6% of residents prefer neurological management of dementia to psychiatric care at initial phases. These attitudes were more striking among medical students: 82.5% of them preferred neurological management “because dementia is a brain disorder†and 76.5% of them justified this preference because “brain regions are involved in dementiaâ€; 63% of medical students have a thought that “psychiatrists are unaware of dementia types than dementia due to Alzheimer’s diseaseâ€. Although there is growing evidence of neuroscience psychiatry on the basis of brain studies, the medical students prefer neurodegenerative disorders with known etiologies to be handled in neurological cares.
Keywords: dementia management, attitude, residency, undergraduate students, education
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