Post-graduate Psychiatry Teaching and Training in India

Abstract

In India, the history of psychiatry is approximately 80 years of post-graduate education. The first psychiatrist who received an MD degree from an Indian medical institution was Late Prof. L.P. Verma, who received his degree in 1941 from Patna Medical College, Bihar.1 In India, a post-graduate course in psychiatry is taught in two forms (MD in Psychiatry and DNB in Psychiatry). MBBS is the minimum educational requirement to be eligible for pursuing MD or DNB Psychiatry course. The duration of the post-graduate course in psychiatry is three years in India. A recent study revealed that the post-graduate degree courses in psychiatry are unequally distributed in the country, which might be responsible for the not-so-equitable distribution and generation of mental health manpower in the country.2 In India, general hospital psychiatry units (psychiatry units attached to medical colleges) play an instrumental role in training post-graduate students of psychiatry. Other than this, mental hospitals also provide teaching and training facilities for post-graduate psychiatry trainees.