What Is the Efficacy of Teaching Psychotherapy to Psychiatry Residents and Medical Students?
OBJECTIVE
Because there are no formal reviews, the authors set out to identify and evaluate studies on teaching psychotherapy to psychiatry residents and medical students.


METHODS
PubMed, Embase, and PsycINFO were searched for papers with outcomes on teaching psychotherapy. Search terms included psychotherapy, teaching, residents, medical students, supportive, psychodynamic, cognitive, behavioral, learning, training, skills, competency, and mentalization.


RESULTS
Nine studies were found that met inclusion criteria. There were seven studies of psychiatry residents and two of medical students. Only two of the research designs had comparison groups, and these were both randomized controlled trials, while seven of the other designs were pretest and posttest. Teaching methods, course content, and outcome measures varied widely across studies. Common methodological problems included a lack of control, low numbers of subjects as learners, and a lack of validity of the outcome measures. Only one of the studies was judged to be methodologically rigorous.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings establish a priority for undertaking additional rigorously designed studies in evaluating the teaching of psychotherapy to psychiatry residents and medical students.
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.
Anh
A
Truong
NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
Peter
P
Wu
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.
Ramon
R
Diez-Barroso
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA. jhc@bcm.edu.
John
J
Coverdale
D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000592:standards*; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000193:education*; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000193:education*
Medical students; Psychotherapy; Residents; Review; Teaching