[Medical students' attitudes towards mental illness: a matter of studies or personality?].

Stigmatization of mental illness is a widespread phenomenon even among health professionals. To explore the origins of this inappropriate attitude, medical students at the beginning and in the end of their studies were examined with self-report measures of social distance towards mentally ill persons, beliefs about etiology of mental disorders, valuation of psychotherapy and the personality features empathy and narcissism. While the students' attitudes turn out to be unrelated to the personality features, significant differences between the two groups were found indicating that distance towards mentally ill patients in the medical role and ambivalence about the etiological factors of mental disorders are stronger pronounced in the end of the studies compared to the beginning.

Student Evaluation Scale for Medical Courses with Simulations of the Doctor-Patient Interaction (SES-Sim).

Objective: Simulations of doctor-patient interactions have become a popular method for the training of medical skills, primarily communication skills. A new questionnaire for the measurement of students' satisfaction with medical courses using this technique is presented, the Student Evaluation Scale for Medical Courses with Simulations of the Doctor-Patient Interaction (SES-Sim).

Method: A set of items focusing on the course quality and the core elements of simulations was created and presented to 220 medical students who had been trained with this method.

The effect of undergraduate education in communication skills: a randomised controlled clinical trial.

Purpose: To determine whether students improve their communication skills as a result of supervised patient care and whether a newly implemented communication course could further improve these skills.

Method: We conducted a randomised, controlled trial including all participants of the first clinical treatment course (n = 26) between October 2006 and February 2007. Randomisation was balanced by gender and basic communication skills.

Improving informed consent of surgical patients using a multimedia-based program? Results of a prospective randomized multicenter study of patients before cholecystectomy.

Objective: The term "informed consent" explains the process by which a patient, before treatment, is provided comprehensive and impartial information regarding a planned operative procedure so that he/she understands the implications of the procedure before consenting. The goal of the current study was to investigate whether standard methods of consenting can be improved using a multimedia-based information program (MM-IP).

Patients And Methods: In a prospective multicenter study, 80 patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy went through the standard informed consent process.

A multimedia tool for the informed consent of patients prior to gastric banding.

Objective: Severe obesity is a clear indication for appropriate, effective weight loss therapy. One option is operative intervention, e.g.

[Integrative psychosomatics: contributions to a reform of medical training].

Medical training has so far mainly emphasised teaching of knowledge and neglected fostering of theoretical and practical competence in doctors' occupation. The consequences of these deficits are often experienced as "practice shock" when young doctors start working. New concepts of teaching moduls in psychosocial subjects may enhance medical competence.