Psychosomatic medicine and psychiatry residents: a pan-Canadian survey.

BACKGROUND: Psychosomatic medicine (PM) is recognized as a psychiatric subspecialty in the US, but continues to be considered a focused area of general psychiatric practice in Canada. Due to the unclear status of PM in Canada, a national survey was designed to assess the perception of and training experiences in PM among psychiatry residents.

METHODS: Residents enrolled at one of 13 psychiatry programs in Canada participated in the study. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess the effect of PM training experiences and career interest in PM on the perception of PM, controlling for number of months already completed in PM, training level, and residency program.

RESULTS: The response rate was 35%, n = 199. 68% of respondents identified PM as a definite subspecialty, with the majority of respondents believing that PM was as important a subspecialty as child (53%), forensic (67%) and geriatric psychiatry (75%). Eighty percent of the respondents believed a PM specialist should complete more than 3 months of additional training to be competent/qualified. There was significant heterogeneity in training experiences across programs, with a differential effect of certain training components-seminar, journal club-associated with a more favorable perception of PM as a subspecialty.

CONCLUSIONS: The above results challenge the notion that PM represents only a focused area of general psychiatric practice in Canada. PM appears to require additional training beyond residency for trainees to feel competent and qualified. Results from this survey suggest Canada should follow the US lead on recognizing PM as a subspecialty.