Psychiatry: Where are we going?

**Admin** Mon Jun 06, 2011 1:57 pm

Psychiatry: Where are we going?

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2011/psychiatry-where-are-we-going.shtml

While 37.6% of practicing physicians are age 55 or older, in psychiatry nearly 55% are in this age range, ranking as the second oldest group of physicians, surpassed only by preventive medicine.

Low rate of medical school graduates choosing psychiatry. Only 4% of US medical school seniors (n = 698) applied for one of the 1097 post-graduate year one training positions in psychiatry.

Over the past decade the number of psychiatry training programs has fallen (from 186 to 181) and the number of graduates has dropped from 1,142 in 2000 to 985 in 2008.

In spite of the national shortage of psychiatrists, especially child psychiatrists, 16 residency training programs did not fill with either U.S. or foreign medical graduates in 2011.

But a recent article in the New York Times reported that only 11% of psychiatrists perform psychotherapy and described a psychiatrist who ran his office “like a bus station,” seeing so many patients for 5 -10 minute medication checks that he had to train himself not to listen to his patient’s problems.

Each of the last three years, we have seen more MD-PhD students choosing psychiatry, suggesting that some of the best students interested in research are moving into this field. As just one example, at Yale, where a new curriculum stresses clinical neuroscience, 12% of the graduating medical school class chose to go into psychiatry this year (relative to the national average of 4%).

Psychiatry: Where are we going? Banner_nimh_tagline

Psychiatry: Where are we going? Banner_nimh_tagline

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