What do psychiatric residents think of addiction psychiatry as a career?

Objective: The authors attempt to better understand the recent decline in the number of applicants to addiction psychiatry training. Methods: The Corresponding Committee on Training and Education in Addiction Psychiatry ofAPA '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 Membersin-Training. Tlie 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. Results: 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. Conclusion: These findings may be used to improve addiction psychiatry training and recruitment.