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Background: The Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) mandates that residents in psychiatry training programs learn to provide psychiatric consultation to other medical and surgical services. The ACGME, however, offers little information to instruct academic faculty and institutions to what constitutes a quality educational experience in psychosomatic medicine/consultation-liaison psychiatry for the resident trainee., Methods: These recommendations were developed through a collaborative process between educators in C-L psychiatry and members of the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine's Residency Education Subcommittee., Results: This manuscript provides a broad framework for what constitutes a well-rounded clinical and academic resident rotation on psychiatric consultation-liaison services. A rotation that is viewed positively by residents is important as it likely provides a foundation for a growing interest in Psychosomatic Medicine and the development of future fellows and subspecialty trained physicians., (Copyright © 2014 The Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Although required by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, training of general psychiatry residents in Psychosomatic Medicine (PM) varies significantly between programs. In 1996, the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine (APM) developed guidelines for residency training in PM. Since then, there has been no assessment of the status of PM training during psychiatry residency., Objective: Assessment of the current state of PM training in U.S. psychiatry residency programs., Method: A 46-item questionnaire was sent via e-mail to 206 residency directors. Four major areas were assessed: the timing and duration of the PM rotation, level of faculty supervision, didactic curriculum, and role (or potential role) of the APM in residency education., Results: Ninety-two surveys were returned (response rate 45%). Forty-four (54%) of the general psychiatry residencies reported the total duration of the C-L rotation as being between 3 and 6 months (including both full- and part-time rotation). Only 38 (46%) programs' residents complete their PM experience in 1 year of residency. The average Full-Time Equivalent of teaching faculty per service was 1.74 (standard deviation 0.92). Sixty-four (77%) programs have a formal didactic curriculum in C-L. Eighty-one (98%) respondents were aware of the APM. Fifty-eight (70%) had APM members among faculty. The most popular responses on how the APM could best serve training programs were the creation of a subspecialty curriculum (73%) as well as the development of a competency-based evaluation tool (66%)., Conclusions: There is significant variation in how residents are taught PM during their training. The APM is a well-recognized organization that may define what constitutes adequate residency training in PM and may help programs fulfill the educational needs of residents., (© 2013 The Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)