Nigeria, with an estimated 40 million people living with mental disorders, faces a critical shortage of psychiatrists to address the significant burden. Despite psychotherapy being integral to psychiatric training, it lacks structure, consistency and adequate supervision. This is alarming, particularly given the substantial demand for specialized psychotherapeutic support among those with mental illness.

A cross-sectional study utilised an online survey targeting early career psychiatrists recruited from the Early Career Psychiatrists section of the Association of Psychiatrists in Nigeria.

The questionnaire was distributed to 252 early career psychiatrists across Nigeria, with a 42.9% response rate, of which 50% were male, with 73.2% trainees and 26.8% early career psychiatrists. While 52.8% had received some psychotherapy training, only 2.8% were qualified psychotherapists. Notably, only 27.6% of those with psychotherapy training had over 100 hours of training. Factors such as receiving psychotherapy training during postgraduate training and having supervised psychotherapy training were found significant for having independent psychotherapy training.

There is little emphasis on psychotherapy training in the postgraduate training in Nigeria. Those who had full training in psychotherapy were self-sponsored. Structured, supervised and mandatory psychotherapy within psychiatry training curriculum is recommended.

The European Psychiatric Association (EPA) Summer School allows psychiatric trainees and early career psychiatrists (ECPs) from all over Europe to meet, network, and learn together. After the 2020 edition being cancelled due to COVID-19, the 10th edition in 2021 focused for the first time on research and was conducted remotely.

To provide an overview and feedback about the first Virtual EPA Research Summer School as a new way to encourage international networking during COVID-19.

The School was organized by the EPA Secretary for Education, and 4 Faculty members. It started with a “breaking the ice session” one week before and then a two-days meeting on 23-24 September 2021 using an online video-platform. This was preceded by all the 21 participants (from 18 different countries) recording a short 4-minute video presentation, which was uploaded and shared with other participants and Faculty.

Participants were divided on a voluntary basis into three working groups: 1) “Drug repurposing: overcoming challenges in pharmacoepidemiology” 2) “Psychopathological research in psychiatry”; 3) “How to conduct a cross-sectional survey?”. The Summer School program was composed of plenary sessions with lectures by the Faculty members, discussion sessions, and working groups time. At the end, each group presented a summary of the work done to the rest of the participants.

Although the remote format limits social interactions during the Summer School, overall participants’ high satisfaction and productivity indicate that not only online formats, but also the topic of research might be covered in future editions.

No significant relationships.

Despite the long history of burnout studies, the problem of burnout among psychiatric specialists in Russia is insufficiently studied. The risk of burnout is the highest among psychiatrists in the first 10 years of their career.

To assess the prevalence and severity of burnout in early career psychiatrists (ECPs) in Russia.

An anonymous online survey of ECPs in Russia was conducted in July-August 2019 with a screening for burnout using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). The final sample consisted of 165 people (61.2% women; mean age 31.05±3.88). 95.2% of respondents lived in urban areas.

A high level of burnout according to at least one of the MBI scales was revealed in 71.5% of ECPs: in 79 (78.2%) women and 39 (60.9%) men (χ2(1)=5.74; p=0.017). Mean values of the MBI Emotional Exhaustion scale corresponded to 23.33±8.97 and 17.97±8.49 (U=1999.5; p=0.003), the MBI Depersonalization scale – 10.46±4.81 and 9.16±4.22 (U=2598.5; p=0.083), and the MBI Personal Accomplishment scale – 33.02±5.98 and 35.32±5.75 (U=2409.5; p=0.026) for women and men, respectively. The following risk factors for professional burnout were identified: female sex (OR=3.54 [95% CI: 1.96; 6.39], p<0.001), overlapping of several working positions (OR=2.44 [95% CI: 1.36; 4.37], p=0.003), difficulties in work due to changes in documentation requirements introduced since the start of career (OR=2.32 [95% CI: 1.31; 4.11], p=0.004).

A high frequency of burnout among ECPs in Russia was revealed which suggests the urgent need for studies assessing the ways to prevent burnout in psychiatrists in Russia.

No significant relationships.

No significant relationships.