Attitudes of medical students towards the concept of suicide

Abstract

The discussion about suicide has grown over the years and garnered new resources for patient care; however, it still carries the stigma of a taboo. It is important to emphasize that suicide is directly linked to health, as mental disorders are present in many cases of suicide or attempted suicide. Therefore, a lack of information on the topic among healthcare professionals and students in the field regarding this subject may lead to inadequate approaches to patients who have attempted suicide or are experiencing suicidal ideation. Thus, the main objectives of this study are to understand the behavior of medical students regarding the concept of suicide and to compare the attitudes of students in the preclinical and clinical stages of medical school. This is a cross-sectional study conducted with undergraduate medical students from Centro Universtiário Barão de Mauá in Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil. For this study, students were divided into two groups: preclinical and clinical, and the Suicidal Behavior Attitudes Questionnaire (SBAQ) was applied. The Student's t-test was used for statistical analysis. The results showed that out of the 21 questions, 7 (33.3%) presented significantly different averages between the basic and clinical cycles, with 2 related to negative feelings and 3 associated with professional competence. These findings indicate that the behavior and perception of medical students, developed throughout their studies, resulted in increased confidence and the acquisition of skills and competencies to handle situations involving patients with suicidal ideation.