Innovations in Psychopharmacology Education in U.S. Psychiatric Residency Programs

Medications available to treat psychiatric illnesses continue to increase, in conjunction with a shifting of outpatient psychiatric practice from psychotherapy toward medication management. To be successful in this climate, a psychiatrist needs to select the appropriate pharmacologic option(s) for their patient, drawing from old and new psychotropics while accounting for variables such as a patient's comorbid medical conditions and potential drug-drug interactions. In the absence of any national psychopharmacology training guidelines, these skills are taught to varying degrees in American psychiatric residency training programs. The past 20 years have seen an increase in innovations in the areas of psychopharmacology curricula topics, teaching strategies, and assessments of psychopharmacology knowledge and skills. Psychiatric training programs can benefit from and build on these innovations, ensuring that all physicians graduating from a psychiatric residency program meet psychopharmacology-based learning objectives and that their learning can be measured in a valid and reliable way.