ECP03-02 - Mental health of european psychiatry trainees - results from the boss study

Abstract

Psychiatrists of today are expected to be experts in prevention, diagnostics and treatments of mental illness; understand human genome and pharmacogentics, integrate it with psychotherapy and sociotherapy; and have great management and communication skills that would facilitate all previously listed. Crucial period to gain “superpowers” are residency training and early-career years. Even though choices made during this period can have long lasting consequences and strongly define ones professional pathway, majority of training programs worldwide does not include consultations or supervisions that would enable people to choose what best fits their personality and professional capacity. This can have significant implications on clinical performance and patient care, academic performance (in terms of research and publications), but also mental health and well being of residents are early career psychiatrists. The latter probably needs additional consideration since our study on this topic (The International Psychiatry Residents/Trainee Burnout Syndrome study) shows that European psychiatry residents suffer from moderate level of burnout syndrome, 5% meet criteria for major depression, 1% attempted suicide, while the number of those with serious suicidal ideation goes up to 20% in some countries. Our aim is to increase awareness of this issue and discuss prevention and treatment strategies.