• Mark H Townsend.
• Department of Psychiatry, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana 70112, USA. mtowns@lsuhsc.edu
• Teach Learn Med. 2004 Jan 1;16(3):247-9.

BackgroundPhysicians can expect to confront a variety of psychiatric emergencies during their careers. However, medical schools are not required to teach emergency psychiatry and little is known about the content of existing instruction.PurposesWe conducted this survey to better understand the emergency psychiatry experiences provided to 3rd-year medical students.MethodsDirectors of medical student education in psychiatry at U.S. medical schools were mailed a 1-page questionnaire about their school's instruction in emergency psychiatry.ResultsWe received 74 responses from the 122 U.S. medical schools (61%). All but 4 reported emergency psychiatry instruction. The number of hours and type of settings students were on-call varied greatly from school to school, as did the scope of faculty supervision.ConclusionsMost schools provide emergency psychiatry instruction, but methods vary among institutions. Given its importance, medical schools should work to provide uniformity in the way emergency psychiatry is taught.

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