Abstract

*Fajure Kolawole, Osondu V.E, M. I Darlington and Demola Bayo

Advances in treatment and rehabilitation of persons with mental illness (PWMI) have generally improved their well-being. However, some people most especially the lay public and no-psychiatric health workers still hold a lot of reservation about the effectiveness of such management interventions. Thus, this study set out to explore medical students’ beliefs about treatment and rehabilitation of PWMI. A descriptive and cross-sectional study carried out among medical students of the College of Medicine of the University of Lagos (CMUL), Lagos, Nigeria. Subjects were selected through multistage and systematic random sampling techniques, with age and sex-matched controls selected among dental students. They were evaluated with a Questionnaire adapted from an instrument earlier used by Sechrest et al. (1973) on crosscultural study of attitude to mental illness among university students. A total of 130 medical students (subjects) and 57 controls (dental students) were studied. The mean age of subjects was 23.2 ± 3.0 years. Varying beliefs about mental illness (MI) were expressed by both subjects and controls. The study has found varying beliefs of the subjects about treatment and rehabilitation of PWMI, most of which are favorable. However, there is still need to emphasize on anti-stigma education on the subjects over their perceived negative beliefs about psychiatry.