(Vienna, 06 February 2017) Psychopharmacology is an important component of specialist medical training in psychiatry and psychotherapy. Previously there was no catalogue of precise learning objectives for the psychopharmacology curriculum. In a work entitled "The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry", European guidelines have now been established for these learning objectives. MedUni Vienna's Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy played an important role in this, in collaboration with the universities of Lausanne, Munich and Budapest.
"Previously, experience gained through many years experience with psychopharmacology has been handed down to prospective specialists by the senior doctors providing the training," explains Siegfried Kasper, Head of MedUni Vienna's Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy and also an author of the study, alongside Marie Spies, who is currently doing her specialist training at the Medical University.
Up until now there has been a lot of variation across Europe in learning programmes in this field and the new catalogue should help to standardise learning objectives and course content.
Amongst other things, the catalogue includes the general principles and methods of general pharmacology but also the understanding and use of pharmacological drugs such as antidepressants, mood stabilisers and the treatment of addictive disorders.
Service: The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry
"A proposal for a psychopharmacology-pharmacotherapy catalogue learning objectives and a curriculum in Europe." Pierre Baumann, Marie Spies, Hans-Jürgen Möller, Siegfried Kasper, Istvan Bitter and Gerd Laux. http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/15622975.2016.1149219.
Event: Current status of psychotherapeutic medication
Advanced training series – PWP on the Vienna General Hospital Medical University Campus: Psychiatry in science and practice. Saturday, 25 February 2017, 9:00 – 13:00 hrs, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, MedUni Vienna/Vienna General Hospital, Lecture Theatre A, Kliniken am Südgarten, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, 1090 Vienna. You are encouraged to register: pwp-akh@medacad.org or www.medacad.org/pwp.