Medical students' evaluation of psychiatry: a cross-country comparison.

The authors reviewed studies of attitudes toward psychiatry held by 368 medical students at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and 204 senior medical students from two schools in Washington, D.C. They found that the attitudes of all these students were remarkably similar: they viewed psychiatry as a worthwhile medical specialty but one of low prestige and low precision and thought that most psychiatric patients could be adequately managed by non-physicians. On the basis of their findings the authors offer recommendations for teaching basic psychiatric skills and for improving psychiatry's image and attractiveness.