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, Addiction
psychiatry, Forensic psychiatry and Geriatric psychiatry, to name a few. The reason for having
different subspecialties is to offer improved care. Given their prevalence and frequent
presentation 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 trained
professionals 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 in
facilities that run psychiatry residency program across the country and psychiatrists who finished
their training in the past 5 years during the study period. Questions answered with Likert scale
were 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 30
years and 44.5% of the participants were females. The majority of the respondents had positive
attitudes 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