Psychotherapy Training in Thailand:Psychiatry Residents’ Perspective

Abstract

ABSTRACT
Objectives: To survey Thai psychiatry residents’ perspective on psychotherapy training in Thailand, including factors related to their decision to practice psychotherapy after finishing residency training
Methods: The study was a questionnaire-based cross-sectional descriptive study, surveying opinion of psychiatry residents in the fiscal year of 2008 about psychotherapy training in Thailand
Results: Fifty nine residents from the total of one hundred and fifty one Thai psychiatry residents in the fiscal year of 2008, accounted for 39%, responded to the questionnaire survey. Most of them were very interested or extremely interested in learning psychotherapy, and valued psychotherapy as the psychiatrists’ identity and effective
treatment. The satisfaction rate for psychotherapy training programs in their training institute was 84.2%. In addition, they were very satisfied or extremely satisfied with psychotherapy supervision. After finishing the residency training program in psychiatry, 98.3% of them planned to practice psychotherapy. There were three major reasons that influenced their decision to practice psychotherapy; psychotherapy is an effective treatment (71.2%), wanting to maintaink their skill (40.7%), and to increase their patients’
compliance to psychotropic medication (33.9%).
Conclusion: Most of the Thai psychiatry residents had positive attitudes on psychotherapy. They were satisfied with psychotherapy training in Thailand, and planned to practice psychotherapy after finishing the residency training program.