Young Psychiatrists’ Network. Between Past and Future

The Young Psychiatrists’ Network (YPN) is a rapidly growing network of Early Career Psychiatrists (till 40 years of age or 5 years since completion of specialty – unless otherwise specified in home country) and Psychiatric trainees.

Its aims include, global development of psychiatry through close collaboration of YPs worldwide, expanding knowledge and sharing experiences, and facilitating the evolution of YPs from different parts of the world and improvement of their knowledge, skills and abilities.

From 30th September – 4th October the 5th YPN Meeting was held in Porto Heli in Greece. It was the biggest Young Psychiatrists Meeting ever held with more than 150 participants from 42 world countries and it was an absolute success. The state of the art scientific program included plenary lectures by renowned psychiatrists such as Prof. Nik. Bouras and Prof. Martin Prince, symposiums and workshops.

In conjunction with the 5th YPN Meeting from 27–30 September, a leadership course directed by Prof. N. Sartorius and Prof. K.H. Wittchen was held in Athens with the participation of 16 participants from 11 world countries.

The next meeting will be in Italy on September 2016.

Future plans include research collaboration, regional meetings and promoting the best possible work and educational conditions for young psychiatrists from all over the world.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Burnout syndrome among psychiatric trainees in 22 countries: Risk increased by long working hours, lack of supervision, and psychiatry not being first career choice

BACKGROUND

Postgraduate medical trainees experience high rates of burnout, but evidence regarding psychiatric trainees is missing. We aim to determine burnout rates among psychiatric trainees, and identify individual, educational and work-related factors associated with severe burnout.

METHODS

In an online survey psychiatric trainees from 22 countries were asked to complete the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI-GS) and provide information on individual, educational and work-related parameters. Linear mixed models were used to predict the MBI-GS scores, and a generalized linear mixed model to predict severe burnout.

RESULTS

This is the largest study on burnout and training conditions among psychiatric trainees to date. Complete data were obtained from 1980 out of 7625 approached trainees (26%; range 17.8-65.6%). Participants were 31.9 (SD 5.3) years old with 2.8 (SD 1.9) years of training. Severe burnout was found in 726 (36.7%) trainees. The risk was higher for trainees who were younger (P<0.001), without children (P=0.010), and had not opted for psychiatry as a first career choice (P=0.043). After adjustment for socio-demographic characteristics, years in training and country differences in burnout, severe burnout remained associated with long working hours (P<0.001), lack of supervision (P<0.001), and not having regular time to rest (P=0.001). Main findings were replicated in a sensitivity analysis with countries with response rate above 50%.

CONCLUSIONS

Besides previously described risk factors such as working hours and younger age, this is the first evidence of negative influence of lack of supervision and not opting for psychiatry as a first career choice on trainees' burnout.

How do european psychiatry trainees prescribe when treating depression, and what influences decision-making? (Survey of the European Federation of Psychiatric Trainees Research Group)

Objectives

Despite recent recent evidence and subsequent guidelines that have suggested factors such as side-effect profile and cost should be taken into account when prescribing antidepressant medication, relatively little evidence exists on decision-making in clinical practice.

Our Pan-European Research Group looked at clinical practice regarding antidepressants amongst Psychiatry trainees, treatments trainees would desire themselves, and factors influencing decision-making.

Methods

A semi-structured survey was constructed from recent literature, was piloted, and a homogenous sample size of at least 50 agreed upon from each country, with 50% the minimum response rate. It was distributed via web-link, questioning preference of antidepressant for patients, and factors influencing choice. Trainees were asked for their preference should they develop a moderate to severe depressive episode, and require medication.

Results

Treatment choices are summarised in Table 1. 79% of trainees would prescribe similar antidepressants for themselves as for patients.

Factors influencing decision-making mapped onto three main domains: cost, efficacy and side-effect profile (5% other reasons). 86% (n = 548) of those who responded felt efficacy most important, 38% (n = 237) felt side-effect profile most important and 6% (n = 33) considered cost of most importance.

Conclusions

Some differences exist in choice of antidepressant for European trainees and their patients, and factors affecting choice conflict with evidence base and guideline suggestions.