Undergraduate Education in Psychiatry in India

Abstract

Medical education curricula, from around the world, have often neglected psychiatry as a subject of importance in undergraduate medical training.In India, the scenario has not been different from the rest of the world. The National Mental Health Survey done in India, recently, estimates a treatment gap of around 80–85% for various mental illnesses. This provides a strong case to strengthen the undergraduate psychiatry curricula since it would help tackle the treatment gap of common mental disorders in the community.Further, a strong educational foundation with meaningful inclusion of mental health and well-being, will also make the trainee aware of their own mental well-being and better help seeking behaviour in the medical student. In this article, we look to review the evolution of undergraduate medical education in India.

A comparative analysis of psychiatry curriculum at undergraduate level of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka

“…After 2011, the psychiatric training of the undergraduate students was intensified by the Medical Council of India (MCI) by increasing the hours of teaching from 20 to 40 h and increasing the clinical posting from 2 to 4 weeks. [ 15 ] Internship posting in psychiatry is also made compulsory as a part of posting in internal medicine. Recently, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Rishikesh, has made psychiatry as a compulsory subject during the undergraduate training.…”

Medical Students Attitude & Knowledge of Psychiatry an Impact of Psychiatry Posting

“…These findings need to be replicated using large number of students before major conclusions are drawn. A small sample size is not necessarily a drawback as it provides greater staff-student interaction, supervision & learning [37][38][39][40].…”

“…This problem is much more serious in developing counties like India where current rates of psychiatric specialization are woefully short of community needs and have a very grim chance of fulfilling the community needs in near future. Moreover, psychiatry is poorly represented in medical education and undergraduate training in psychiatry and behavioral sciences in most medical colleges in India is unsatisfactory [12][13][14]. Since 'the dawn of psychiatry", as a specialization distinct from medicine and neurology, teaching of psychiatry in our medical colleges has followed a pattern formulated originally by British with minor modification [15].…”

Education and training in psychiatry in South Asian countries

“…The changes suggested by Medical Council of India (MCI) in 2011, are not yet implemented except 2 weeks' compulsory postings during internship. The MCI's decision on compulsory internship in psychiatry for MBBS graduates is a significant step forward (Kallivayalil & Enara, 2020). Although several recommendations have been made by the MCI, such as increasing the teaching hours allocated for psychiatry, making psychiatry posting mandatory during internship, being taught in an integrated manner with community medicine, increasing the marks allocated during final assessment, and internal assessment being made mandatory for final assessment, implementation remains a challenge (Kallivayalil, 2012).…”