Background and objective: The attitudes of medical students' toward psychiatry have been studied extensively in other countries. A positive attitude to psychiatry may make future doctors more responsive to the psychological needs and morbidity of patients in all branches of medicine. Large numbers of emotionally disturbed patients present themselves to non-psychiatric physicians, and much of somatic medicine is psychologically influenced. The purpose of this study was to assess medical students' attitudes toward psychiatry as well as to examine whether attitudes toward psychiatry improved during psychiatric attachment.

  Materials and Methods: 144 Medical students' of Zanjan Medical University in physiopathology, clerkship and Internship participated in the study with filling the "Attitude to Psychiatry Questionnaire". Also, clerkship medical students were divided into two groups. One group was those who had not stayed in the psychiatric ward and the other groups were those who had stayed in the psychiatric ward. Then, the attitudes of two groups were compared.

  Results: All of the students had favorable attitude to psychiatry with the mean score of 80/74 on "Attitude to Psychiatry Questionnaire"(neutral score 72).Improvement in attitudes was related to the increased motivation to pursue psychiatry as a career (p: 0/01 n: 144). Also, in comparing with two clerkship groups, it was found that attachment to psychiatric ward in proved attitude toward psychiatry among medical students (P: 0/015, n: 57).

  Conclusions: The study confirms earlier reports of a significant positive impact of undergraduate psychiatric attachment on medical students' attitudes toward psychiatry. Thus, teaching psychiatry at an undergraduate level may have important implications, because future doctors respond to patient's psychological difficulties.