Is it Time to Create Subspecialty Trainings in Psychiatry in Ethiopia? Perspectives of Early Career Psychiatrists and Psychiatry Residents on Addiction Psychiatry as a Career.
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Date
2020-11
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Addis Abeba University
Abstract
Introduction: The field of psychiatry has many subspecialties, among which are Child psychiatry, Addictionpsychiatry, Forensic psychiatry and Geriatric psychiatry, to name a few. The reason for havingdifferent subspecialties is to offer improved care. Given their prevalence and frequentpresentation as co-morbidities of psychiatric disorders; addiction will need to be a core domain of psychiatric residency. The huge gap between the increasing prevalence of SUDs and trainedprofessionals to tackle the problem is undeniable in our country. Considering the evident increase in SUDs in the country, exploration of ways to initiate and improve addiction training is of paramount importance.
Objective: The objective of the current study is to explore attitudes as well as beliefs of early career psychiatrists and psychiatry residents across the country regarding addiction psychiatry as a career. By doing so, it aims to gain insights into ways on how and when addiction psychiatry subspecialty training can be developed in Ethiopia.
Method :An electronic survey was conducted via confidential and anonymous emails sent to residents infacilities that run psychiatry residency program across the country and psychiatrists who finishedtheir training in the past 5 years during the study period. Questions answered with Likert scalewere analyzed quantitatively.
Results :A total of 77 psychiatrists and psychiatric residents responded to the questionnaire which is 81.05% of the study population: 29 were psychiatrist and 48 were residents. The mean age is 30years and 44.5% of the participants were females. The majority of the respondents had positiveattitudes to addiction psychiatrists and addiction psychiatry. Addiction psychiatrists were seen as making a difference in their patient’s lives where 100% of the participants agreed to that statement. On the other hand, the participants had negative attitude towards the patient population who receive addiction psychiatry service. Of the participants, 88.3% thought addiction psychiatrists work with difficult patient population, and 53.2% of the participants showed interest to work with the patient population addiction psychiatrists work with. Overall,41.6% of the participants said to have interest in the field of addiction psychiatry.
Conclusion :The majority of the respondents had positive attitudes to addiction psychiatrists and addiction psychiatry as a career.
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Keywords
Addiction, Training, Attitude