Abstract

Background: The number of continuing medical education (CME) programmes is becoming increasingly more in recent times and there were no formal reported studies among psychiatrists in India. Objective: To find out psychiatrist\'s general opinion about CME. Materials and methods: Data were collected from a representative sample of psychiatrists in active practice about CMEs attended in the last 5 years using a proforma through email and representative contacts. The general impression about CME and faculty was collected apart from personal data. The opinion regarding CME credit hours for renewal of medical council of India (MCI) registration was obtained by a question. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and Cronbach\'s alpha was computed for reliability, validity and to know the data adequacy of the test to perform Results: In all responses from 202 participants were analysed. Majority of responders were below 40 years (64%). More than half were in the profession for less than 10 years. Two-fifth conducted CME and nearly a third were office-bearers mostly in city associations. Sixty-six percent attended because of topic while 34% for faculty and 21% for MCI renewal. Thirty-six percent were either partly or fully sponsored by pharmaceutical companies. While 58% participants and 74% faculty found CME favorably, on the unfavourable side the figure were 21% and 51% respectively. More than half (55%) were against the need of CME for renewal of registration. Conclusion: An unconditional positive regard may be good for psychiatric therapy but the same cannot be said of CME.

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