In total, we included 137 studies of which 73 were observational studies and 64 were intervention studies. In the following, we describe and categorize the identified studies according to diagnosis and health care profession. All included studies examined stigmatizing behaviors, attitudes, and/or perceptions among health professionals in the somatic health care system toward patients with mental disorders. For the sake of readability, we will primarily refer to this information as ‘attitudes and behaviors’.
Categorization of health professionals and patients
To create an overview of the wide range of different health professions included in the identified studies, we divided the health professionals into 13 categories (Fig. 2). Some studies focused on students rather than trained professionals, and we categorized these studies separately. Other studies included both students and professionals. Moreover, while some studies included well-defined groups of health professionals, such as nurses or general practitioners, others did not focus on specific health professionals. These studies were categorized under the heading ‘Health professionals’, e.g. various hospital employees. Similarly, the category ‘Health care students’ refers to various students within health education. However, we also identified studies examining both students and health professionals, which formed the broad category ‘Health professionals and health care students’. Finally, the category ‘Medical doctors’ covers all other types of medical doctors besides general practitioners, e.g. surgeons or different types of medical specialists.
We also categorized the identified studies according to the patients’ diagnoses and formed seven categories. Five of the categories cover specific diagnoses. In addition, we included a ‘Mixed mental disorders’ category. This category includes studies not confined to a specific mental disorder or studies that examined multiple diagnoses. Furthermore, the category ‘Dual diagnosis’ covers studies examining patients with a mental disorder and a substance use disorder.
Characteristics of the observational studies
The main purpose of the observational studies was to investigate the magnitude of stigmatizing attitudes and behaviors among health professionals in the somatic health care system toward patients with mental disorders. In total, we identified 73 observational studies, all from the Western Hemisphere. About half of the studies were from Europe (n = 41), including a large proportion of studies from England (n = 16), followed by North America (n = 15), Oceania (n = 11), and Asia (n = 3). Furthermore, we identified three studies comparing populations across countries. Most studies used quantitative methods (n = 58); however, we also identified qualitative studies (n = 13) and mixed methods studies (n = 2).
As illustrated in Fig. 2, we found that most studies (n = 13) focused on emergency personnel, followed by medical doctors (n = 10) and health professionals (n = 8). Most studies (n = 40) focused on several, different diagnoses (Table 1). In studies focusing on single, specific diagnoses, the most frequent mental disorders were self-harm (n = 10) and schizophrenia (n = 9).
We combined type of health profession with diagnosis as shown in Table 1. The table shows that a relatively large proportion of studies examined attitudes and behaviors among emergency staff toward patients who self-harm (n = 6). In contrast, studies examining attitudes and behaviors among medical doctors (n = 10) were divided into a wide range of diagnoses, such as depression (n = 1), schizophrenia (n = 1), eating disorders (n = 2), self-harm (n = 2), mixed mental disorders (n = 3), and dual diagnosis (n = 1).
Table 1
Combination of diagnoses and health care profession (observational studies)
Diagnosis | Health care profession | Number of studies |
Depression (n = 3) | Health care students | 1 |
Pharmacists | 1 |
Medical doctors | 1 |
Borderline (n = 2) | Nurses | 1 |
Emergency personnel | 1 |
Schizophrenia (n = 9) | Health professionals and health care students | 2 |
Nursing students | 1 |
Pharmacy students | 2 |
Pharmacists | 1 |
Medical students | 1 |
Medical doctors | 1 |
General practitioners | 1 |
Eating disorder (n = 5) | Health care students | 1 |
Health professionals | 1 |
Medical doctors | 2 |
General practitioners | 1 |
Self-harm (n = 10) | Health professionals | 2 |
Medical doctors | 2 |
Emergency personnel | 6 |
Mixed mental disorders (n = 40) | Physiotherapy students | 1 |
Midwifes | 1 |
Health professionals and health care students | 5 |
Nursing students | 6 |
Nurses | 5 |
Health professionals | 3 |
Pharmacy students | 1 |
Pharmacists | 4 |
Medical students | 4 |
Medical doctors | 3 |
General practitioners | 3 |
Emergency personnel | 5 |
Dual diagnosis (n = 4) | Health professionals | 2 |
Medical doctors | 1 |
Emergency personnel | 1 |
Total | 73 |
For a detailed description of study design, target group, sample size and diagnosis on observational studies, see Table 2.
Table 2
First author, year, reference | Country | Population | Sample size | Diagnosis | Design |
Abood, 2009 [31] | UK | Medical doctors | N = 47 | Self-harm | Quantitative |
Anderson, 2017 [32] | USA | Medical doctors | N = 80 | Eating disorder | Quantitative |
Arbanas, 2019 [33] | Croatia | Health professionals | N = 387 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Artis, 2013 [34] | UK | Emergency personnel | N = 10 | Self-harm | Qualitative |
Arvaniti, 2009 [35] | Greece | Health professionals and health care students | N = 592 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Avery, 2019 [36] | USA | Medical doctors | N = 411 | Dual diagnosis | Quantitative |
Bannatyne, 2017 [37] | Australia | Health care students | N = 126 | Eating disorder | Quantitative |
Bell, 2010 [38] | Australia, Belgium, India, Finland, Estonia, Latvia | Pharmacy students | N = 649 | Schizophrenia | Quantitative |
Bell, 2008 [39] | Australia, Belgium, India, Finland, Estonia, Latvia | Pharmacy students | N = 642 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Bjorkman, 2008 [40] | Sweden | Nurses | N = 120 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Brunero, 2017 [41] | Australia | Nurses | N = 16 | Mixed | Qualitative |
Castillejos, 2019 [42] | Spain | General practitioners | N = 145 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Ceylan, 2019 [43] | Turkey | Nurses | N = 186 | Schizophrenia | Quantitative |
Chapman, 2014 [44] | Australia | Emergency Personnel | N = 186 | Self-harm | Quantitative |
Clifton, 2016 [45] | UK | Health professionals | N = 85 | Mixed | Qualitative |
Conlon, 2012 [46] | Ireland | Emergency personnel | N = 87 | Self-harm | Quantitative |
Crapanzano, 2018 [47] | USA | Medical doctors | N = 96 | Depression | Quantitative |
Currin, 2009 [48] | UK | General practitioners | N = 154 | Eating disorders | Quantitative |
Cutler, 2009 [49] | USA | Medical students | N = 47 | Mixed | Qualitative |
Dixon, 2008 [50] | UK | Medical students | N = 1081 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Ewalds-Kvist, 2013 [51] | Sweden | Nursing students | N = 246 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Gawley, 2011 [52] | Canada | Health care students | N = 309 | Depression | Quantitative |
Giannetti, 2018 [53] | USA | Pharmacists | N = 239 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Gordon, 2012 [54] | UK | Emergency personnel | N = 32 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Granados-Gamez, 2017 [55] | Spain | Nursing students | N = 194 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Happell, 2008 [56] | Australia | Nursing students | N = 148 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Happell, 2018 [57] | Australia, Ireland, Finland, Norway, Netherland | Nursing students | N = 423 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Heyward-Chaplin, 2018 [58] | UK | Health professionals | N = 59 | Self-harm | Quantitative |
Ihalainen-Tamlander, 2016 [59] | Finland | Nurses | N = 218 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Janouskova, 2017 [60] | The Czech Republic | Health professionals and health care students | N = 308 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Jones, 2009 [61] | USA | Medical doctors | N = 51 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Koning, 2018 [62] | Australia | Emergency personnel | N = 15 | Self-harm | Qualitative |
Konzelman, 2018 [63] | USA | Nursing students | N = 229 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Kopera, 2015 [64] | Polonia | Health professionals and health care students | N = 57 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Korszun, 2012 [65] | UK | Medical students | N = 760 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Kuzman, 2014 [66] | The Czech Republic | Medical students | N = 199 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Leddy, 2009 [67] | USA | Medical doctors | N = 504 | Eating disorder | Quantitative |
Liekens, 2012 [68] | Belgium | Pharmacists | N = 149 | Depression | Quantitative |
Magliano, 2011 [69] | Italy | Medical students | N = 194 | Schizophrenia | Quantitative |
Magliano, 2017 [70] | Italy | General practitioners | N = 387 | Schizophrenia | Quantitative |
McCann, 2018 [71] | Australia | Emergency personnel | N = 1230 | Dual diagnosis | Quantitative |
McCarthy, 2010 [72] | Ireland | Emergency Personnel | N = 68 | Self-harm | Quantitative |
Morral, 2016 [73] | UK | Pharmacists | N = 351 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Muehlenkamp, 2013 [74] | Belgium | Health professionals | N = 342 | Self-harm | Quantitative |
Nash, 2013 [13] | UK | Emergency personnel | N = 39 | Mixed | Qualitative |
Nauta, 2019 [75] | Netherlands | Medical doctors | N = 187 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Neauport, 2012 [76] | France | Medical doctors | N = 322 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Noonan, 2018 [77] | Ireland | Midwifes | N = 157 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Nutt, 2017 [78] | Scotland | Health professionals | N = 113 | Dual diagnosis | Quantitative |
O'Reilly, 2012 [79] | Australia | Health professionals and health care students | N = 23 | Mixed | Qualitative |
O'Reilly, 2015 [80] | Australia | Pharmacists | N = 188 | Schizophrenia | Quantitative |
Peitl, 2011 [81] | Croatia | Health professionals and health care students | N = 151 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Perboell, 2015 [82] | Denmark | Emergency personnel | N = 122 | Self-harm | Quantitative |
Prener, 2015 [83] | USA | Emergency personnel | N = 20 | Mixed | Qualitative |
Rai, 2019 [84] | UK | Medical doctors | N = 37 | Self-harm | Mixed methods |
Rao, 2009 [85] | UK | Health professionals | N = 108 | Dual diagnosis | Quantitative |
Raveneau, 2014 [86] | USA | Health professionals | N = 82 | Eating disorder | Quantitative |
Reavley, 2014 [87] | Australia | Health professionals | N = 1536 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Rickles, 2010 [88] | USA | Pharmacists | N = 292 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Sandhu, 2019 [89] | Canada | Health professionals and health care students | N = 538 | Schizophrenia | Quantitative |
Schafer, 2011 [90] | UK | Nursing students | N = 288 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Schmidt, 2017 [91] | Netherlands | General practitioners | N = 63 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Serafini, 2011 [92] | Italy | Health professionals and health care students | N = 202 | Schizophrenia | Quantitative |
Shefer, 2014 [15] | UK | Emergency personnel | N = 39 | Mixed | Qualitative |
Stumbo, 2018 [93] | USA | General practitioners | N = 597 | Mixed | Mixed methods |
Treloar, 2009 [94] | Australia | Emergency personnel | N = 140 | Borderline personality disorder | Qualitative |
Van Nieuwenhui, 2013 [95] | UK | Emergency personnel | N = 25 | Mixed | Qualitative |
Volmer, 2008 [96] | Estonia | Pharmacy students | N = 157 | Schizophrenia | Quantitative |
Weare, 2019 [97] | Australia | Nurses | N = 40 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Winkler, 2016 [98] | The Czech Republic | Medical doctors | N = 3010 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Woollaston, 2008 [99] | UK | Nurses | N = 6 | Borderline personality disorder | Qualitative |
Yildirim, 2015 [100] | Turkey | Physiotherapy students | N = 524 | Mixed | Quantitative |
Zolnierek, 2012 [101] | USA | Nurses | N = 1 | Mixed | Qualitative |
Characteristics of the intervention studies
The main purpose of the intervention studies was to evaluate interventions to reduce health professionals’ stigmatizing attitudes and behaviors toward people with mental disorders. We identified 64 intervention studies, most of which were from North America (n = 19), followed by studies from Europe (n = 16), Oceania (n = 13), Asia (n = 13), and Africa (n = 1). In addition, two interventions studies were comparative studies. Most studies were based on quantitative methods (n = 51); seven were mixed methods studies, and six were qualitative studies.
Most intervention studies focused on changing students’ attitudes and behaviors toward patients with mental disorders; 20 of these studies focused on medical students, 20 focused on nursing students and six focused on pharmacy students, as illustrated in Fig. 3. Furthermore, eight studies focused on general practitioners, constituting the third-largest category when distributing the studies by health profession.
Most intervention studies (n = 45) did not focus on patients with a specific mental disorder, but typically on attitudes and behaviors toward multiple mental disorders or mental disorder in general as shown in Table 2. Depression (n = 5), eating disorder (n = 4), and schizophrenia (n = 4) were among the most common diagnoses.
By combining health profession with diagnosis (Table 3), we found that most of the studies focusing on attitudes and behaviors among nursing students did not focus on a specific mental disorder, as 17 of the 20 identified studies looked at multiple diagnoses or mental disorder in general. Similarly, 16 of 20 identified studies examining attitudes and behaviors among medical students focused on multiple diagnoses or mental disorder in general. We found a similar pattern for studies examining attitudes and behaviors among pharmacy students (n = 6) and health care students (n = 1).
Table 3
Combination of diagnoses and health care profession (intervention studies)
Diagnosis | Health care profession | Number of studies |
Depression (n = 5) | General practitioners | 3 |
Pharmacists | 2 |
Borderline (n = 2) | Emergency personnel | 1 |
Health professionals | 1 |
Schizophrenia (n = 4) | Medical doctors | 1 |
Medical students | 3 |
Eating disorder (n = 4) | General practitioners | 1 |
Medical students | 1 |
Nursing students | 2 |
Self-harm (n = 3) | Emergency personnel | 2 |
Nursing students | 1 |
Bipolar disorder (n = 1) | Health professionals | 1 |
Mixed mental disorders (n = 45) | General practitioners | 4 |
Medical students | 16 |
Pharmacy students | 6 |
Health care students | 1 |
Nurses | 1 |
Nursing students | 17 |
Total | 64 |
For a detailed description of study design, target group, sample size, and diagnosis in the intervention studies, see Table 4.
Table 4
First author, year | Country | Population | Sample size | Diagnosis | Design | Intervention |
Airagnes, 2014 [102] | France | Medical students | N = 163 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental with control group | Lectures |
Arbanas, 2018 [103] | Croatia | Nursing students | N = 51 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental without control group | Expeditionary interventions |
Bannatyne, 2015 [104] | Australia | Medical students | N = 41 | Eating disorder | Quasi-experimental with control group | Lectures |
Beaulieu, 2017 [105] | Canada | General practitioners | N = 73 | Mixed | RCT | Interventions targeting general practitioners and medical doctors |
Bilge, 2017 [106] | Turkey | Nursing students | N = 322 | Mixed | Other | Lectures |
Bingham, 2018 [107] | New Zealand | Nursing students | N = 45 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental without control group | Expeditionary interventions |
Brenner, 2011 [108] | USA | Medical students | N = 100 | Mixed | Qualitative | Expeditionary interventions |
Calloway, 2017 [109] | USA | Nurses | N = 82 | Mixed | Qualitative | Interventions targeting health professionals |
Chiles, 2017 [110] | USA | Medical students | N = 289 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental without control group | Observational studies |
Clement, 2012 [111] | UK | Nursing students | N = 216 | Mixed | RCT | Contact-based interventions |
Coppens, 2018 [112] | Portugal, Germany, Ireland, Hungary | General practitioners | N = 208 | Depression | Quasi-experimental without control group | Interventions targeting general practitioners and medical doctors |
Crisafulli, 2008 [113] | USA | Nursing students | N = 115 | Eating disorder | Quasi-experimental with control group | Lectures |
Crockett, 2009 [114] | Australia | Pharmacists | N = 32 | Depression | RCT | Interventions targeting pharmacists |
Demiroren, 2016 [115] | Turkey | Medical students | N = 190 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental with control group | Expeditionary interventions |
Dipaula, 2011 [116] | USA | Pharmacy students | N = 278 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental with control group | Lectures |
Duffy, 2016 [117] | USA | Nursing students | N = 131 | Eating disorder | Quasi-experimental without control group | Lectures |
Duman, 2017 [118] | Turkey | Nursing students | N = 202 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental with control group | Lectures |
Economou, 2017 [119] | Greece | Medical students | N = 678 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental without control group | Expeditionary interventions |
Economou, 2012 [120] | Greece | Medical students | N = 158 | Schizophrenia | Quasi-experimental without control group | Expeditionary interventions |
Eksteen, 2017 [121] | The South African Republic | Medical students | N = 616 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental without control group | Expeditionary interventions |
Esen Danaci, 2016 [122] | Turkey | Medical students | N = 106 | Schizophrenia | Quasi-experimental without control group | Observational studies |
Failde, 2014 [123] | Spain | Medical students | N = 171 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental without control group | Observational studies |
Fernandez, 2016 [124] | Malaysia | Medical students | N = 102 | Mixed | RCT | Contact-based interventions |
Flanagan, 2016 [125] | USA | General practitioners | N = 27 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental with control group | Interventions targeting general practitioners and medical doctors |
Fokuo, 2017 [126] | USA | Nursing students | N = 70 | Mixed | Qualitative | Contact-based interventions |
Gable, 2011 [127] | USA | Pharmacy students | N = 39 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental with control group | Lectures |
Galletly, 2011 [128] | Australia | Medical students | N = 87 | Schizophrenia | Quasi-experimental without control group | Contact-based interventions |
Gibson, 2019 [129] | UK | Nursing students | N = 55 | Self-harm | Quasi-experimental without control group | Lectures |
Happell, 2008 [130] | Australia | Nursing students | N = 687 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental without control group | Expeditionary interventions |
Happell, 2019 [131] | Australia, Ireland, Finland | Nursing students | N = 194 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental without control group | Contact-based interventions |
Hastings, 2017 [132] | USA | Nursing students | N = 310 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental without control group | Expeditionary interventions |
Itzhaki, 2017 [133] | Israel | Nursing students | N = 101 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental without control group | Contact-based interventions |
Kassam, 2011 [134] | UK | Medical students | N = 110 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental with control group | Contact-based interventions |
Knaak, 2015 [135] | Canada | Health professionals | N = 191 | Borderline personality disorder | Quasi-experimental without control group | Interventions targeting health professionals |
Lam, 2011 [136] | Hong Kong | General practitioner | N = 69 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental without control group | Interventions targeting general practitioners and medical doctors |
Lam, 2015 [137] | Hong Kong | General practitioners | N = 566 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental with control group | Interventions targeting general practitioners and medical doctors |
Liekens, 2013 [138] | Belgium | Pharmacists | N = 141 | Depression | RCT | Interventions targeting pharmacists |
Linville, 2013 [139] | USA | General practitioners | N = 45 | Eating disorder | Quasi-experimental without control group | Interventions targeting general practitioners and medical doctors |
Lyons, 2015 [140] | Australia | Medical students | N = 151 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental without control group | Expeditionary interventions |
Manzanera, 2018 [141] | Spain | General practitioners | N = 1322 | Depression | Quasi-experimental without control group | Interventions targeting general practitioners and medical doctors |
Markstrom, 2009 [142] | Sweden | Health care students | N = 167 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental without control group | Expeditionary interventions |
Martinez-Martinez, 2019 [143] | Spain | Nursing students | N = 185 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental without control group | Contact-based interventions |
McAllister, 2009a [144] | Australia | Emergency personnel | N = 28 | Self-harm | Quasi-experimental without control group | Interventions targeting emergency personnel |
McAllister, 2009b [145] | Australia | Emergency personnel | N = 36 | Self-harm | Quasi-experimental without control group | Interventions targeting emergency personnel |
Michalak, 2014 [146] | Canada | Health professionals | N = 164 | Bipolar disorder | Quasi-experimental without control group | Interventions targeting health professionals |
Morrison, 2009 [147] | Australia | Nursing students | N/A | Mixed | Qualitative | Contact-based interventions |
Moxham, 2016 [148] | Australia | Nursing students | N = 9 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental with control group | Expeditionary interventions |
Muzyk, 2017 [149] | USA | Pharmacy students | N = 74 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental without control group | Lectures |
O' Connor, 2013 [150] | Ireland | Medical students | N = 285 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental without control group | Expeditionary interventions |
Omori, 2012 [151] | Japan | Medical doctors | N = 51 | Schizophrenia | Quasi-experimental without control group | Interventions targeting general practitioners and medical doctors |
O'Reilly, 2010 [152] | Australia | Pharmacy students | N = 178 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental without control group | Contact-based interventions |
O'Reilly, 2011 [153] | Australia | Pharmacy students | N = 60 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental with control group | Lectures |
Papish, 2013 [154] | Canada | Medical students | N = 111 | Mixed | RCT | Expeditionary interventions |
Patten, 2012 [155] | Canada | Pharmacy students | N = 131 | Mixed | RCT | Contact-based interventions |
Poreddi, 2015 [156] | India | Medical students | N = 176 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental with control group | Lectures |
Romem, 2008 [157] | Israel | Nursing students | N = 126 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental without control group | Expeditionary interventions |
Shen, 2014 [158] | China | Medical students | N = 325 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental without control group | Expeditionary interventions |
Stacey, 2018 [159] | UK | Nursing students | N/A | Mixed | Qualitative | Lectures |
Stuhlmiller, 2019 [160] | USA | Nursing students | N = 85 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental without control group | Expeditionary interventions |
Telles-Correia, 2015 [161] | Portugal | Medical students | N = 398 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental without control group | Observational studies |
Treloar, 2009 [162] | Australia | Emergency personnel | N = 65 | Borderline personality disorder | Quasi-experimental with control group | Interventions targeting emergency personnel |
Upshur, 2008 [163] | USA | General practitioners | N = 9 | Depression | Quasi-experimental without control group | Interventions targeting general practitioners and medical doctors |
Wang, 2016 [164] | Taiwan | Medical students | N = 72 | Mixed | Quasi-experimental with control group | Observational studies |
Winkler, 2017 [165] | The Czech Republic | Nursing students | N = 499 | Mixed | RCT | Contact-based interventions |
Note
RCT = Randomized controlled trial, Observational studies = Observational studies of the effect of attending medical school
Intervention types and content
Of the 64 included intervention studies, 47 targeted health care students while 17 targeted health professionals. To provide a more detailed characterization of the type and content of the identified intervention studies, we categorized the interventions into eight main types: four targeting students and four targeting health professionals. We categorized the interventions targeting students based on the content of the intervention, whereas we categorized interventions targeting health professionals according to the content and specific health profession (e.g. nurses or medical doctors) because these were often closely related. We present one example of each intervention type, focusing on examples that are illustrative of the intervention types, well-described in the articles, and show a geographical breadth and variation between health care students and professionals. For a detailed description of the intervention studies, see Table 4.
Interventions targeting students
We identified 47 intervention studies targeting health care students. We categorized these into four different types of interventions: a) Lectures b) Expeditionary interventions c) Contact-based interventions, and d) Observational studies of the effect of attending medical school. Many interventions included a mix of different activities. We divided the interventions according to the most prominent ones. The interventions most often targeted nursing students (n = 20) or medical students (n = 20), while six interventions targeted pharmacy students and one targeted a mixed group of students.
Lectures
Interventions based on lectures (n = 13) were characterized by a teacher-centered approach, and typically took place in a classroom where the teacher provided different educational programs [102, 104, 106, 113, 116–118, 127, 129, 149, 153, 156, 159]. The topics of the lectures varied, including e.g. doctor-patient relationships [102], empathy [104], mental health literacy [153], social distancing [156], fear [149], and knowledge about how patients with mental disorders experience encounters with the somatic health care system [159]. In an example of a classical teaching intervention from Australia, pharmacy students participated in two 12-hour Mental Health First Aid courses. The classes addressed themes such as symptoms, evidence-based treatment of several mental disorders, early warning signs of mental disorder, and how to provide initial help to people in a mental health crisis. The courses involved, e.g., case studies and group activities [153].
Expeditionary interventions
These interventions (n = 17) had in common that they primarily took place outside of the classroom and included clerkships and field trips, e.g. to psychiatric wards [103, 107, 108, 119–121, 130, 132, 140, 142, 148, 150, 154, 157, 158, 160]. The interventions lasted from four hours a week for three weeks [107] to full time for eight weeks [140], and some also included lectures on mental health and psychiatry [107, 119, 120, 140, 158]. While all 17 interventions aimed to reduce stigma, some also investigated the impact on a) students’ interest in psychiatry, b) psychiatry as a career choice, and c) attitudes toward psychiatry.
In some interventions, students visited psychiatric facilities [132] or pharmacies [116], since a visit at local pharmacies allowed pharmacy students to meet patients with mental disorders. Other interventions were mental health camps consisting of a 2-5-day immersive learning program outside of the ‘typical’ clinical setting, where students could meet and interact with people with a mental disorder at camp sites [148, 160]. One of these interventions included students in the United States, who participated in a mental health camp after receiving didactic teaching. The camp consisted of two days working with a group of patients from the local mental health service. The program included trust and confidence-building exercises and socialization through joint preparation of meals and leisure activities. Following the camp, students attended a 15-week mental health placement at either a community facility or a hospital [160].
Contact-based interventions
Contact-based interventions (n = 12) had in common that they focused on facilitated encounters with patients with mental disorders [111, 124, 126, 128, 131, 133, 134, 143, 147, 152, 155, 165]. These types of interventions were mainly characterized by patients with mental disorders being involved in the lectures, either as educators [131, 152] or as visitors giving testimonies [134, 143, 155]. In some cases, the testimonies were introduced to students via video display [111, 124, 133, 165]. In contrast to interventions based on expeditionary learning, contact-based interventions typically took place in classrooms or other educational settings.
To exemplify, in Spain nursing students participated in a 90-minute intervention including testimonies from a mental health professional, a person with a mental disorder and a family member of another person with a mental disorder. They described their experiences with mental disorder, e.g., how the disorder emerged, symptoms and side effects of medication, problems related to family coexistence, and problems in the workplace. Following this, a 30-minute discussion among students and the presenters was held [143].
Observational studies of the effect of attending medical school
We identified five studies investigating the effect of attending medical school on stigmatizing attitudes and behaviors toward patients with mental disorders [110, 122, 123, 161, 164]. These studies were observational or based on natural experiments in contrast to the other studies. For instance, in Turkey researchers followed freshman medical students from 2008–2013. A questionnaire was administered to the participants on their first study year, before receiving any theoretical or practical training on psychiatry. Participants who completed their psychiatry internship were reassessed with a questionnaire five years later [122].
Interventions targeting health professionals
We identified 17 intervention studies targeting health professionals, including general practitioners and other medical doctors (n = 9), emergency personnel (n = 3), nurses (n = 1), pharmacists (n = 2), and non-specific groups of health professionals (n = 2). We categorized these interventions into four intervention types: (1) Interventions targeting general practitioners and medical doctors, (2) Interventions targeting pharmacists, (3) Interventions targeting emergency personnel, and (4) Interventions targeting non-specific groups of health professionals.
Interventions targeting general practitioners and medical doctors
Nine studies focused on interventions targeting general practitioners and medical doctors [105, 112, 125, 136, 137, 139, 141, 151, 163]. They focused on attitudes and behaviors toward patients with specific mental disorders such as depression [112, 141, 163] or eating disorders [139]. The interventions differed considerably in content and scope. For example, in Hong Kong general practitioners participated in a 1-year part-time course. The course included 20 interactive seminars on mental disorders and 20 sessions visiting general practitioner consultations, including a written assignment. The seminars were developed and conducted by a family physician and a psychiatrist. After completing the seminars, the participants began clinical attachment in groups [136].
Interventions targeting pharmacists
We found two interventions targeting pharmacists (n = 2), both of which addressed attitudes and behaviors toward patients with depression [114, 138]. The interventions aimed to empower pharmacists when encountering patients with depression through courses in communication skills, awareness of depression, and use of anti-depressants. For example, Australian pharmacists were taught, by a psychiatrist, a psychologist, and a general practitioner, to give advice and support when dispensing medication. To upgrade their knowledge, the pharmacists received pamphlets on depression [114].
Interventions targeting emergency personnel
Few studies (n = 3) investigated the impact of educational programs on emergency personnel [144, 145, 162]. These interventions primarily focused on the reception of patients with mental disorders at emergency rooms through courses in evidence-based treatment and communication. For example, in Australia, researchers tested a 2-hour lecture focusing on participants’ attitudes and current practice in relation to self-harm. Lectures included theories for understanding self-harm and evidence-based treatment. Teaching material consisted of PowerPoint presentations and short video narratives from clinical practice and consumer reports [144].
Interventions targeting non-specific groups of health professionals
Three interventions did not target a specific group of health professionals, but included different professions [109, 135, 146]. These interventions differed considerably in content given that one was a lecture [109], one a workshop [135], and one a stage play [146]. In the latter, researchers from Canada worked closely with an actress and playwright who had bipolar disorder. They developed a one-woman stage play specifically targeting stigma toward that specific disorder. A director was hired for the rehearsal period. The audiences comprised people with bipolar disorder and health care providers working with this target group [146].