Am J Psychiatry 1977; 134:379-384
Copyright © 1977 by American Psychiatric Association
Substance abuse attitude changes in medical students
JN Chappel, RD Jordan, BJ Treadway and PR Miller
The authors describe a course in substance abuse given to sophomore medical
students with the intention of positively influencing their attitudes
toward substance-abusing patients and their treatment. Clinical problem
solving and small group discussion were emphasized in addition to field
trips. By pretest and posttest measures, significant positive changes were
obtained in student attitudes: they reported feeling less upset when they
encountered alcoholics, "hard" drug abusers, "soft" drug abusers,
compulsive smokers, and obese overeaters as well as having a more positive
view of the physician's role in the treatment of substance dependence.
Personal experience with alcohol and other drugs was shown to have an
influence on attitude changes.
