The Forsaken Specialty: Why Do Doctors Look Down on Psychiatry?
A recent press release by the Royal College of Psychiatrists showed that only a quarter of medical students thought that a career in psychiatry was appealing, with most believing it was not seen as a prestigious career by either the public or by other doctors. In separate research, researchers asked 51 psychiatrists and 50 non-psychiatrists about their opinions of different medical specialties; 57% of the psychiatrists felt their own specialty was the least respected, and 55% felt there was a stigma attached to being associated with mental illness.
David Healy, consultant psychiatrist and professor of psychiatry at Cardiff University, suggests that it may not be that stigma is attached to the mental health issue itself, but that mental health disorders are so challenging to treat.
A Scottish study, presented at the International Congress of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Edinburgh, showed that students who completed a short placement in psychiatry ended up viewing the specialty far more positively. Perhaps, as James Strain writes in the New England Journal of Medicine, "destigmatisation requires demystification," and simply allowing students to have short yet broad placements in psychiatry will go a long way to improving the situation.
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