Attitudes of medical students toward psychiatry in a Chilean medical school.

Objective: The authors assess the attitudes of seventh-year medical students with regard to psychiatry and patients with psychiatric illness during the psychiatry clerkship.

Methods: A 32-item questionnaire regarding attitudes toward psychiatry and patients with psychiatric illness was administered at the beginning of the psychiatry clerkship.

Results: One hundred and ten seventh-year students participated in the study, providing responses anonymously.

Journal club experience in a postgraduate psychiatry program in Chile.

Objective: Literature about journal clubs in postgraduate psychiatry programs is scarce, and there is no reference to residents' preferences.

Methods: Residents were asked to respond to a survey about their general satisfaction with the current journal club format and paper preferences, according to subject, scope, and type.

Results: Residents' general satisfaction was high.

[Mood disorders, psychopharmacology and thyroid hormones].

For more than 40 years thyroid hormones and mood disorders have been associated. Some psychiatric symptoms are produced by thyroid illnesses and there is a frequent association of thyroid dysfunction with mood disorders. Therefore, routine thyroid function assessment in patients with mood disorders and the treatment of sub-clinical thyroid dysfunctions is recommended.