CONTINUING MEDICAL-EDUCATION IN MARITAL AND FAMILY-THERAPY - A SURVEYOF SOUTH AUSTRALIAN PSYCHIATRISTS

Objective: South Australian psychiatrists were surveyed to determine t heir impressions of the usefulness of marital and family therapy (MFT) in the management of serious psychiatric conditions and to ascertain their previous experience with Continuing Medical Education (CME) abou t family therapy. It was expected that psychiatrists' preferences rega rding CME would be related to their clinical experience of the usefuln ess of MFT. Method: One hundred and twenty psychiatrists returned a qu estionnaire about their training, clinical and research interests, wit h ratings of the usefulness of MFT and CME preferences. This represent ed 65% of those eligible for the CME programme. Results: Thirteen perc ent of the respondents found MFT to be extremely useful and a further 47% found it moderately useful in their current practice. There was ev idence of a possible training effect: respondents who had previous CME rated MFT as more useful, especially for mood disorders. Furthermore, the treatment of mood disorders seemed to have a particular relevance in family psychiatry, making a statistically unique contribution to r atings of MFT usefulness in the respondents' total practice. Sixty-nin e percent of the respondents requested further CME in family therapy. This represented 45% of all South Australian psychiatrists. Respondent s who rated MFT as more useful in practice were significantly more lik ely to be interested in CME. Conclusions: There seems to be sufficient interest and clinical experience among psychiatrists for MFT to be in cluded in CME courses, It is recommended that further training focus o n major mental disorders, especially mood disorders and schizophrenia.