Alcoholism and substance abuse teaching in child psychiatry residency programs

In order to determine the needs and goals of substance abuse teaching, vis-à-vis child psychiatry training, a questionnaire was sent to the training directors at every child psychiatry program accredited by the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Examination. The results demonstrated that most child psychiatry programs schedule at least some didactic time specifically for substance abuse topics. However, only 59% of the training directors felt that their fellows were adequately educated to identify and at least initially manage a drug abusing adolescent.