Panorama nacional do ensino da psiquiatria nas escolas médicas brasileiras

OBJECTIVE: To determine the profile of psychiatric teaching in Brazilian medical schools, with a focus on the number of professors involved and their respective degrees, the number of disciplines devoted to psychiatry and the predominant approach (psychodynamic/clinical/other) adopted, the didactic materials employed and the teaching and learning facilities available. METHODS: The study was based on the collection of data via application of questionnaires at all medical schools registered with the Brazilian Association of Medical Education (Associacao Brasileira de Educacao Medica). RESULTS: Of the 119 Brazilian schools contacted, 85 (71%) returned the questionnaires. The number of professors graduated in psychiatry at each school varied from 1 to 5 (75.3%); of these, 1 to 2 (43.4%) had a PhD degree, 1 to 2 (45.8%) a master's degree, and 1 to 2 (57.3%) were specialists. The findings revealed that 41.2% of the schools offered two disciplines of psychiatry, with a predominantly psychodynamic/clinical approach (61.2%). At 52.9% of the schools, teaching of psychiatric topics was not restricted to the specific disciplines; 64.7% of the disciplines offered hands-on training in general clinical settings. Mean number of credit hours of psychiatric teaching along the medical program was 61-90 (26.2%), and 88.9% of the programs used books as the main choice for didactic purposes. At 83.3% of the medical schools, psychiatric teaching is graded by students at the end of each discipline. CONCLUSION: The present findings revealed an important heterogeneity in the geographic regions assessed, affecting at least 71% of the schools. New studies are warranted to advance the preliminary findings herein reported.