The Clinician-Investigator Interface in Psychiatry: I — Values and Problems

Abstract

The two following papers describe some of the benefits and problems involved in integrating clinical and investigative work. It is stressed that there are a number of advantages to such integration. Researchers especially benefit from the proximity to patients and clinicians. Education can be significantly enhanced when researchers and clinicians are in one setting and this can benefit residents, medical students and non-medical health personnel. There are a number of problems to such clinical research in psychiatry. These are discussed especially as they relate to senior faculty and their resistances to research. The shortage of clinician scientists in teaching positions means that most residents are not involved with such people as mentors early in their training and do not consider this as a career option after their residency training. Reductionistic thinking on the part of some researchers and when researchers are not first-rate clinicians both contribute to residents not becoming involved in clinical investigation. Funding policies as well as chairmen's hiring policies also play a role here.