Table 4 Medical students’ free text responses to ‘Factors influencing decision’ when considering a career in psychiatry

“Psychiatry will become the most in demand speciality in the future”

“I am interested in the conditions and I think psychiatric patients are some of the most in need yet stigmatised”

“It’s slow paced; I think you generally have to wait a long time to see improvement”

“Little hand-on skills”

“Higher rates of depression in psychiatrists”

“Listening to someone’s problems every day and not getting affected by it would be difficult for me”