Psychiatry Resident and Medical Student Perspectives on ECT: Influence of Exposure and Education.

We surveyed medical students doing the required psychiatry clerkship at our hospital and first-year psychiatry residents in our residency training program for their attitudes, knowledge, and opinions about electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) before and after their inpatient rotations. The students' knowledge was lower and their attitudes more negative toward ECT than those of residents at baseline. Upon completion of the rotation, students and residents had more knowledge and highly positive attitudes about ECT and stated that they would undergo ECT if it were recommended. Willingness to undergo ECT if it were recommended correlated with the knowledge measures of ECT.