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.