Attitudes towards prescribing psychiatric medicines: Do the views of psychology and medical students differ?

Concordance has been suggested as a process of the consultation in which prescribing process is based on partnership. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to compare attitudes towards psychiatric medication and concordance in medicine taking between medical and psychology students, as they represent future members of mental health teams. Two hundred and sixteen medical students and 222 psychology students completed the Leeds Attitudes toward Concordance scale (LATCon) and the Beliefs about Medication Questionnaire (BMQ) (both adapted for psychiatric medication). Psychology students saw psychiatric medicines as more harmful and were also most likely to believe that psychiatrists overprescribed these medicines. They also scored higher than medical students on attitudes towards concordance, although this difference remained at the limit of statistical significance.