[Teaching psychopathology using the AMDP system in postgraduate education]

The presentation of a patient's differential diagnosis and treatment by a psychiatric trainee during a clinical conference is increasingly used at the postgraduate level, and psychopathology is--in Europe--one of the major aspects of these conferences. At the Department of Psychiatry of the Max-Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, we successfully used the Psychopathology Scale of the AMDP-System, systemically discussing two to three items during a 3-4 h. conference. The advantage of the AMDP scale and glossary is that its psychopathological concepts and terminology are classically European and concise; for teaching purposes, the separation of the scale and of the Manual is another advantage.