What Do Psychiatric Residents Think of Addiction Psychiatry as a Career?

Abstract

The authors attempt to better understand the recent decline in the number of applicants to addiction psychiatry training. The Corresponding Committee on Training and Education in Addiction Psychiatry of APA's Council on Addiction Psychiatry sent out a 14-question anonymous e-mail survey to all postgraduate-year 2 (PGY-2) through PGY-4 APA Members-in-Training. The questions explored residents' beliefs and attitudes toward addiction psychiatry and sought their opinion on how training in addiction psychiatry can be made more attractive to them. Of 2,511 eligible psychiatric residents surveyed nationally, 276 (10.6%) residents responded to the survey. Residents who responded had a generally positive impression of addiction psychiatrists but expressed much less favorable attitudes toward the practice of addiction psychiatry. Respondents provided three major subsets of suggestions: employment security and compensation, optimize PGY-1-4 addiction training, and fellowship training issues. These findings may be used to improve addiction psychiatry training and recruitment.