Psychiatric training in primary care medicine residency programs. A national survey

Abstract

The authors conducted a national survey to investigate the current status of psychiatric training in primary care/internal medicine residencies. Fifty-four residency training directors completed and returned the survey. The survey results show that an average of 99 hours (69.5 hours clinical plus 29.8 hours didactics) is devoted to psychiatric training during the 3 years of primary care/internal medicine residency training. Responding residency training directors indicated that psychiatric training is important (an average of 7 out of 10 on a 10-point rating scale), and 63% of respondents indicated that more training in psychiatry is needed.