Psychopharmacology Education in Psychiatry

Abstract

Summary This study has documented resident dissatisfaction with education in psychopharmacology in one large university and has proposed several solutions. These include: • increased awareness of standards of knowledge necessary for a consultant. • the establishment of a central educative office of clinical psychopharmacology to encourage dissemination of selected literature and to facilitate residents’ research under supervision. • recognition that not all staff should be considered capable to provide psycho-pharmacology supervision and that each hospital should have a designated psychiatrist with special expertise in psychopharmacology. • developing study groups for the purpose of teaching critical evaluation of the literature. • increasing encouragement for residents’ participating in clinical research. • awareness of residents’ difficulties in learning (emotional illness, rejection of biological therapies, and knowing what is expected or not suited to psychiatry) and appropriate actions to alter these. • increased use of audio aids, self-teaching manuals and journals to augment lectures and texts. • increased emphasis on training selected senior residents in how to teach.