The scientific practitioner in psychiatry for the 21st century

Objective: To argue that practical research experience should be a requirement for postgraduate training in psychiatry in Australasia. Conclusions: It is acknowledged that at present there is only indirect evidence to support the authors'views, but insufficient evidence is not equivalent to negative evidence. In addition, the ideal study is a prospective, preferably randomized comparative study of trainees who do and who do not have practical research experience during training, with a range of subjective and objective outcomes assessed. It is argued that we cannot afford to wait until such a study is completed and lose a generation of trainees who will not be exposed to more than 'lectures' on research during their postgraduate years. It is believed that removing such practical research experience from a postgraduate training programme would be a retrograde step, and out of line with other medical colleges and clinical training in cognate disciplines. In the longer term this could result in psychiatry being seen as less able to evaluate its own clinical practice, and psychiatrists as less able to practice evidence-based medicine.