Addictions Training in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowships

The primary purpose of this article is to identify current gaps in adolescent addictions training in order to develop a strategic plan to enhance clinical and didactic curricula for child and adolescent psychiatry fellowships.

The American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training (AADPRT) Taskforce on Addictions was assembled in 2017 and consisted of 10 AADPRT members and 4 consultants to the committee with known experience in addictions treatment and training. A 21-item survey was developed and disseminated to all AADPRT members who were Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist (CAP) fellowship directors using the AADPRT Listserv (n = 109). Data were exported from the SurveyMonkey platform to provide deidentified responses to each question.

Forty-seven programs (43%) responded to the survey. In supervision and education, 40.43% of programs denied making use of expertise from Addiction Psychiatry Fellows, faculty, and resources. Common reasons for not offering specific teaching and clinical exposure include a limited number of faculty/staff, limited number of faculty/staff with expertise, and insufficient clinical sites. Curriculum content and teaching exposure varied substantially between programs.

While a lack of services in adolescent addictions may be a limiting factor, developing expertise through faculty development activities, as well as nationally disseminated model curricula with educational resources has the potential to improve national adolescent addictions training.