In recent decades, medical student interest in a career in mental health appear to be in
decline1. There are multiple factors responsible for the apparent lack of interest in
psychiatry, one of them may be the perception that the scientific foundation of psychiatry
and psychopharmacology is weaker compared to other fields of medicine.
As the field of psychopharmacology evolves, the terminology used to describe different
classes of medication becomes increasingly convoluted: at a time when the same agent is used
for the treatment of several different disorders, the nomenclature in use is indication-based
and divided into classes that are disease based - such as Antidepressant, Antipsychotic and
Anxiolytics. These classes, in turn, are divided into subclasses like "Atypical" or "Second
Generation" - terms that give little information regarding the pharmacological properties of
the medication itself.
This discrepancy between the current naming of psychotropics and the way they are used in
clinical practice is confusing to both the clinician and the patient - and since it fails to
reflect on the current scientific knowledge, may affect the way young medical professionals
perceive the profession of psychiatry.
In an effort to examine ways of improving the current nomenclature in Psychopharmacology, in
2008 the nomenclature taskforce was initiated, composed of representatives from five
international organizations: ECNP - European College of Neuropsychopharmacology, ACNP -
American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, AsCNP - Asian College of
Neuropsychopharmacology, CINP - International College of Neuropsychopharmacology, IUPHAR -
International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology.2 The result of this effort is the
Neuroscience based Nomenclature (NbN) - a pharmacologically driven nomenclature that focuses
on reflecting current knowledge and on the understanding of the neural system being modified
(''pharmacological domain'') and its mode/mechanism of action (''mode of action'')3. The NbN
was widely accepted by both clinicians and leading psychiatric journals4 The need to revise
the teaching methods of psychopharmacology was reviewed over the years, with different
strategies suggested5. To our knowledge, this research is the first that examine whether
putting greater emphasis on neuroscience in the teaching of psychotropics, through the use of
a new terminology, achieve the goal of improving medical students views on psychiatry.