Continuing Medical Education in Marital and Family Therapy: A Survey of South Australian Psychiatrists

Objective: South Australian psychiatrists were surveyed to determine their impressions of the usefulness of marital and family therapy (MFT) in the management of serious psychiatric conditions and to ascertain their previous experience with Continuing Medical Education (CME) about family therapy. It was expected that psychiatrists' preferences regarding CME would be related to their clinical experience of the usefulness of MFT. Method: One hundred and twenty psychiatrists returned a questionnaire about their training, clinical and research interests, with ratings of the usefulness of MFT and CME preferences. This represented 65% of those eligible for the CME programme. Results: Thirteen percent of the respondents found MFT to be extremely useful and a further 47% found it moderately useful in their current practice. There was evidence of a possible training effect: respondents who had previous CME rated MFT as more useful, especially for mood disorders. Furthermore, the treatment of mood disorders seemed to have a particular relevance in family psychiatry, making a statistically unique contribution to ratings of MFT usefulness in the respondents' total practice. Sixty-nine percent of the respondents requested further CME in family therapy. This represented 45% of all South Australian psychiatrists. Respondents who rated MFT as more useful in practice were significantly more likely to be interested in CME. Conclusions: There seems to be sufficient interest and clinical experience among psychiatrists for MFT to be included in CME courses. It is recommended that further training focus on major mental disorders, especially mood disorders and schizophrenia.