This is the dataset of a prospective experimental case-control study to evaluate the effect of addiction medicine training on medical students’ attitude and perceptions related to addiction. A total of 296 fourth-year medical students participated in this study in 2014 and 2016. They were recruited from elective blocks, namely addiction medicine (n=86), healthcare entrepreneurship (n=82), palliative care (n=81), and medical education (n=47). The addiction medicine block was the intervention and the other blocks formed the control condition. The dataset consists of the scores of attitude and perception of all participants. All participants were asked to anonymously fill-in two questionnaires, the medical condition regard scale and the illness perception questionnaire addiction version. Questionnaires were distributed in the classroom on the first day of each elective block for the baseline measurement and on the last day of the block for the follow-up one. The analyses were performed using the IBM SPSS software version 24. First, the baseline data were evaluated using the MANOVA to explore differences in demographic characteristics and baseline attitudes and perceptions between the four blocks. Demographics, attitude and perception scores of the pre-measurement were dependent variables and the blocks were the independent ones. Second, the effect of addiction medicine training on attitude and perceptions was evaluated using repeated measures MANOVA. The dependent variables were the score of attitude and each perception sub-scale. The within-subjects variable was time (two levels: baseline and follow-up) and the between-subjects variable was blocks. The Helmert contrast analysis was performed to analyse the difference between the intervention and the control group). Finally, within the intervention group, the predictors of attitude after the training were evaluated using the linear regression analysis. We found that attitude towards patients with addiction improved in the intervention group, compared to the control one. After the training, several perception scores significantly changed in the intervention group compared to the control group: a smaller demoralisation score (less demoralised perception towards addiction), a higher illness coherence score (stronger perception of a coherent understanding of addiction), a higher timeline cyclical score (stronger perception of addiction as a cyclical condition), and a higher psychological attribution score (attributed addiction more to psychological factors). In the intervention group, two factors were associated with the attitude after the training, namely the attitude (before the training), the emotional representation perception (before the training), and the illness coherence perception (after the training).

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