The purpose of the study reported in this article was to examine first-year medical students' attitudes toward their free time and how these attitudes relate to self-reported stress levels. Members of the entering class of 1982-83 at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine were asked to complete surveys designed ...

Viewing desperate love as marked by urgency, neediness, dependence, a great need for reciprocation, indealization, and affective extremes, personality traits leading to desperate love were examined. A sample of 251 undergraduates, in desperate love, nondesperate love, and random groups, completed several questionnaires examining characteristic qualities of self and important others ...

Marked differences were found between the reasons chosen to explain overdoses by the closest relatives or friends (the 'significant others') of 34 self-poisoners and those reasons chosen by the self-poisoners themselves. Whilst 41% of the latter claimed suicidal intent, in only one case was the significant other in agreement. The ...

In recent years, the teachers in the north and the Inuit have become increasingly aware of the educational effects of hearing los frequently associated with chronic otitis media. In the Baffin Zone, N.W.T. and in Nouveau Quebec a surge of enthusiasm has surfaced to do something positive and on-going about ...

Presently developing attitudes of future physicians towards preventive medicine will likely provide either a major impetus for or barriers to the inclusion of preventive medicine content in medical school curricula and in other formats of physician education. In turn, attitudes about preventive care and its role in medical practice will ...

One aspect of the Rush Medical College Longitudinal Study is concerned with the identification of personality traits that predict various kinds of psychosocial adjustments and impairments among medical students and physicians. Two orthogonal traits, masculinity and femininity, were selected for study as independent variables because of their implications for mental ...

Although attitudinal objectives in medical education about alcohol and drug misuse are important, adequate instruments for measuring the achievement of such objectives have been lacking. The development of a standardized Substance Abuse Attitude Survey (SAAS) is described. Multiple administrations and factor analyses selected and refined the item pool of the ...

Attitudes of medical students towards the psychosocial aspects of illness is of serious concern to medical educators. It is thought that medical students are overwhelmingly disease-oriented and not sufficiently sensitive to the role of the psychological, emotional, sociological and economic factors in the etiology and management of illness. In the ...

Starting from the psychosomatic patients in clinico-medical wards and the inherent two primary alexithymic features "highly limited introspective capacity' and "very low motivation concerning dynamic psychotherapy', which we proved empirically, we describe the therapist's attitude and the three steps of supportive psychotherapy which initially represent the most indicated procedure in ...

A study was designed for practitioners wishing to provide comprehensive educational services to the elderly. The effectiveness of four methods (i.e., oral instructions alone or in combination with written information, a medication reminder calendar, or a medication reminder package) of changing patient attitudes, drug knowledge, and compliance behavior was measured ...

The author discusses the results of surveys conducted in Warsaw, concerning the extent of use of unprescribed medicine from 1970-1980. Drug use did not increase over the decade studied, and most respondents took the medication to treat particular complaints. No correlation was found between self-medication and social or occupational status. ...

All studies addressing affective issues were identified from a review of the Proceedings of Research in Medical Education (RIME) volumes between 1970 and 1982. A total of seventy-seven papers were sorted into the following seven categories according to the major issues addressed: (1) descriptive studies of personality, values and attitudes; ...

Increasing employee productivity and efficiency is a goal for every medical group administrator. By allowing employees the opportunity to voice their opinions anonymously, management can gain accurate and valuable information on employee attitudes. The author demonstrates, through a case study, how an attitude survey can provide specifics on the strengths ...

Previous studies suggest that medical students and doctors may express a range of positive and negative attitudes and behaviours towards patients. As an initial attempt to understand how attitudes toward patients are formed, first-year medical students were asked to describe their feelings about six categories of patients. These reactions were ...

There is a continued emphasis on developing the pharmacist's medication counseling role to better serve the public. To understand this role, the present study utilized a shopper methodology to describe the extent to which 40 rural community pharmacists engage in five dimensions of counseling for each of two drug products. ...

To detect any change in medical students' attitudes toward medical ethics, students from the same class were given a questionnaire on their first day of medical school and again near the end of their fourth year of study. The results showed a strong shift away from the students' initial expectations ...

The knowledge and attitudes of 36 psychiatric out-patients regarding medication were investigated by personal interview. Over 80 per cent of the variance of self-report medication compliance was predictable from an array of socio-economic variables and cognitive variables. Compliers and non-compliers differed in their expectancy and prior experience of beneficial effects ...

The negative attitudes of emergency medical personnel toward suicide attempters are well documented in recent studies. Part of the reason for such negative attitudes may involve the emergency medical professional's lack of knowledge about the variety of psychiatric conditions present in the patient who attempts suicide. Information about such conditions ...

Studies of resort to healers in medically pluralistic settings in different geographic and cultural areas reveal two basic patterns of resort--illness specific and multiple use. This paper suggests that the particular pattern inferred from a study may depend largely upon whether the data consist of general attitudes and preferences or ...

Measures of six self-reported moods (assessed using the Mood Questionnaire), serum cholesterol levels, and serum uric acid (SUA) levels were obtained from 26 divers attending the Saturation Diver Training (SDT) course, the most sophisticated and arduous diving course offered by the U.S. Navy. These measures were correlated with various types ...

The results of a postal enquiry into the current usage of subarachnoid spinal analgesia in Scotland are compared with those obtained in 1976. On each occasion replies were received from more than 70% of those consultants receiving questionnaires. Replies indicating use of the techniques increased from 40% in 1976 to ...

The study on which this article is based evaluated the effect of a clerkship in anesthesiology on medical students' attitudes toward anesthesiology as a specialty, the role of anesthesiologists as physicians, career choice, and the usefulness of this experience in their learning. Eighty-four participating students filled out questionnaires on the ...

A study was conducted to explain variability in hospital employee responses to the implementation of a medical information system. Results showed that 28 to 35 percent of the variance in adaptation was explained by the predictor variables, and that the significant variables were attitudes toward computers in general, role ambiguity, ...

Medical knowledge and psychic reactions were studied in families affected by a progressive autosomal recessive disease, aspartylglucosaminuria. The information was given mainly in simple but written form. The subjects appeared to accept little correct information. Conversation did not appear to be of much value and intense emotional reactions were provoked. ...

The way a medical student perceives the sexual attitudes of physicians may affect what is learned from medical school sex education and the manner in which such learning is applied later with patients. Medical students' personal sexual attitudes, their projections of physicians' and patients' attitudes, and the actual attitudes of ...

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 ...

A tool was developed to assess attitudes of patients with cardiac disease toward performing prescribed behaviors of their medical regimen. Two groups of subjects with heart disease were used to examine validity and reliability of the Miller Attitude Scale. One group included 480 members of Mended Hearts, Inc., and the ...

Pharmacist and physician attitudes toward the use of medication in various situations were compared. In May 1979, a questionnaire was sent to 300 pharmacists and 300 physicians randomly selected from practitioners licensed in Arizona. The questionnaire listed 25 statements regarding the use of medications in controversial situations; respondents were asked ...

Little is known about the therapies that people initiate for their health problems, and the available research on self-medication has focused primarily on adult populations. Only a few studies have specifically addressed mothers' independent use of medications for their children, and none has described such behavior in depth (for example, ...

In most, if not all, chronic illnesses, the patient is a participant in medical management. Attitudes and behaviors during treatment can influence medical outcome in important ways that are becoming increasingly understood. This case history illustrates how a personal style may have contributed to the worst possible outcome, death, in ...

The development and validation of a thirty item, Likert-type scale designed to measure medical students' attitudes to psychiatry-the ATP-30 (Attitudes Toward Psychiatry-30 items)-are described. We had hoped to demonstrate that 'attitude to psychiatry' was not a unitary matter but an amalgam of attitudes to a number of things to do ...

Secretaries and doctors share one primary objective-patient care. Common aims are usually achieved most effectively by working together. This demands a willingness to respect the views and feelings of one another. This paper argues that it is important to determine the opinions and attitudes of the medical secretary if the ...

As the hazards of long-term use of psychotropic drugs become more apparent, drug holidays and medication discontinuance are increasingly being implemented. Chronically ill patients are often reluctant to cooperate with such treatment recommendations. The authors questioned 52 chronically impaired patients taking neuroleptics about their attitudes toward medication changes and their ...

The extent to which new information on colorectal cancer (C.C.) is being transmitted to medical undergraduates was assessed in a repeated survey of new interns' knowledge of and attitudes on C.C. A probability sample of 214 graduates of the two Sydney medical schools was drawn as they commenced their internships ...

Chairpersons of departments of medicine, pediatrics, and family medicine were sent a questionnaire to determine their experience with, and attitude toward, medical sociology. The results showed that between 40% and 50% of medical students are taught medical sociology during their preclinical years, usually by several departments. Formal instruction was far ...

Psychiatry is, in a number of ways, a unique area within medicine. It is a subject of intense public interest, with a wide-ranging influence on non-medical culture; its practitioners have a perplexing variety of strategies of diagnosis and treatment, the diversity of which can be attributed to the lack of ...

After nearly two decades of genesis, human sexuality has become a regular part of the curricula for most medical schools. Evaluation of sex education is less common and often hampered by the absence of appropriate control groups and misinterpretation of statistical analysis. To evaluate a new sex education course at ...

An 80-item scale for measuring attitudes toward psychiatry in medicine was developed and tested. Item selection from the initial 160 items was based on factor analysis and internal consistency of the eight resulting subscales, six subscales exhibiting Cronbach Alpha coefficients ranging from .79 to .95, with two showing coefficients of ...

Money is ubiquitous, and individuals' attitudes to money are rife with ambivalence and dysphoria. Medical training neglects money issues; thus, many physicians remain with conflicts that interfere greatly with therapeutic potential and cost containment. Conflictful emotions about money appear throughout treatment. Guidance is given toward developing the attitudes, knowledge, and ...

Investigated medical and psychological help-seeking attitudes and behaviors as a function of liberal-conservative attitudes toward women. Subjects participated in a structured interview concerning their attitudes toward and experiences with physicians and psychotherapists, and completed the Attitudes toward Women Scale. Compared to conservatives, liberals readily seek mental health services, stay in ...

Advocates of home birth cite psychological and medical benefits in their demand for a different approach to birthing procedures. Opponents emphasize the risks of this approach and point to improved outcomes through medical progress available only in hospitals, as well as to recent, less positive European attitudes toward home births. ...

A study of the influence of general practice attachment on the attitudes and preconceptions of new clinical students is reported. An attitude questionnaire was administered to a cohort of Oxford clinical students immediately before and after a two-week period of general practice attachment, introduced as part of the clinical introductory ...

The purpose of this article is to review the developments that contributed to the appearance of Adolescent Medicine. A historical account is followed by the application of two related sociological concepts: a) Rosen's hypothesis of changes in the attitudes of the medical profession to specialization and b) the process of ...

Professional and lay attitudes about the role of the dentist in the health sciences is changing perceptibly [16-18]. The view that the activities of the dentist are limited to manipulations of the teeth is being replaced by the view that the dentist is an important member of the health team. ...

A survey questionnaire about attitudes toward terminal illness was administered to all medical students, interns, and all medical, surgical, and psychiatric residents at the Downstate Medical Center. The majority of students and new physicians surveyed reported that patients with terminal illness should be told their diagnosis--a reversal of attitudes as ...

A method for quantifying the value placed on diagnostic accuracy is described. Named the Diagnostic Utility Index (DUI), it was completed by fifty subjects (including pathologists, physicians and medical students). Analysis of the responses reveals that attitudes to diagnostic perfectionism differ from one disease to another. It is suggested that ...

Despite a significant interest in bereavement in this country there are little hard data on attitudes to, beliefs about, and experiences with, death and dying in the Australian context. This paper reports the results of a survey in the area with special reference to the responses of medical practitioners and ...

In this study the results of a questionnaire administered to medical students attending a lecture course on loss and grief are analysed. The focus of the inquiry was to determine whether attitudes towards death, dying and loss could be influenced by confrontation with factual information on bereavement. The results showed ...

In Third World countries, limited resources of anaesthetists and resuscitation facilities mean that electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is usually given 'straight' (i.e. without anaesthetic and muscle relaxant). This study compared the attitudes of Ugandan medical students towards ECT given straight and ECT administered with muscle relaxant and general anaesthesia (i.e. 'modified' ...

In a study of the development of professional attitudes in medical students, a modified version of the Medical Attitudes Inventory (Harris, 1974) was administered to 141 male and female first year medical students in Lagos, Nigeria. The results show that the students have well-defined attitudes on certain issues and are ...