Psychiatric education at the crossroads: issues and future directions.

Psychiatric education is currently facing many critical issues. Their resolution will determine the future availability of psychiatrists and is dependent on the development of new strategies that will require a reorientation in several aspects of current psychiatric education. This may be necessary if the vitality of psychiatry as a specialized branch of medicine is to be maintained and the relevance of psychiatric training and practice to service needs and research objectives is to be increased.