Development, implementation, and evaluation of a movie-based curriculum to teach psychopathology.

BACKGROUND: Because medical students' attitudes toward psychiatry are often fostered by media, we provided an elective movie-based seminar to teach psychopathology. DESCRIPTION: We assessed attitudes toward psychiatry by using the Attitudes towards Psychiatry (ATP 35) scale in a pre-post design. Furthermore we evaluated the knowledge of diagnostic criteria in a pre-post design within one sample. EVALUATION: Of the 75 students who attended the seminar during 3 consecutive semesters, 54 (60.8% female) participated in the pre-post assessment. We observed a significant positive change in attitudes toward psychiatry and a significant gain of knowledge.
CONCLUSIONS: Using movies is a feasible and effective method to teach psychiatry.