A survey of the attitudes of Greek medical students toward electroconvulsive therapy.

Data on attitudes toward electroconvulsive therapy have been reported from various countries; no information, however, is available from Greece. In this survey, we report the results of a questionnaire reflecting the general attitude of Greek medical students toward ECT. A total of 161 sixth (final)-year medical students who had no previous exposure to a formal didactic experience on ECT, were asked to complete a questionnaire before attending a scheduled 90-minute lecture on ECT, as part of their regular curriculum. Questions in the questionnaire could be grouped to indicate a positive, a reserved, or a negative attitude toward ECT. Overall, before the lecture, 50.3% held a positive attitude toward ECT, 43.5% were reserved, and 6.2% held a negative attitude. A subgroup of these students (n = 137) were asked again to score the same questionnaire immediately following the lecture to rate the impact of the didactic seminar. The proportion of students with a positive attitude after the lecture was increased to 78.1%, (P < 0.001), while the proportion of students with reserved and negative attitudes were reduced to 20.4% (P < 0.001) and 1.5%, respectively. These encouraging findings reflect, however, only the immediate effects of the lecture and do not guarantee persistence of this change in attitudes over time.