Nonpharmacological biological therapies Knowledge and attitudes of resident trainees regarding electroconvulsive therapy

Objective: The aim of our study was to determine whether there were any differences between resident trainees in basic medical science, internal medical science, and surgical medical science regarding their knowledge of and attitudes towards electroconvulsive therapy.

Method: The study consisted of 176 graduates of faculty of medicine under residency training at the Medical School of Gaziantep University.

Results: Of the participants, 47 of the internal medicine residents (47%), 32 of surgery residents (56.1%), and 11 of the basic medical science residents (57.8%) had never observed the application of ECT. There were no significant differences in attitudes between the residents in three groups (p>0.05) except in response to the question, “Do you want your relative to undergo ECT if medical indications for ECT were present?”. The basic medical science and internal medicine residents answered as “yes” significantly more often than those studying surgery (p=0.02).

Conclusion: In this study, there were no significant differences between residents in internal medicine, surgery, and basic medical sciences in terms of their knowledge and attitudes toward ECT except the item mentioned above.