Educators say there are likely multiple reasons for the rising interest in psychiatry over a decade. But the pandemic and heightened attention to social determinants of health have dramatically raised the profile of mental health more recently.

A total of 1,640 U.S. senior medical school graduates—1,253 from allopathic and 387 from osteopathic schools—matched into psychiatry residencies during this year’s National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) in March. That’s up from 1,537 last year.

Additionally, 321 international medical graduates and 69 other applicants (allopathic and osteopathic graduates from a previous year) also matched into psychiatry, bringing the total to 2,030 medical school graduates. Just 17 psychiatry positions went unfilled.

The annual match, in which the program choices of graduating medical students are paired with those of residency programs seeking trainees, is typically watched as an indicator of workforce size and makeup of the various medical specialties for the coming years.

Psychiatry’s numbers have been increasing yearly since 2011. Former APA Trustee Sidney Weissman, M.D., a past president of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training (AADPRT), noted that since 2011, the number of senior allopathic medical school graduates selecting psychiatry has nearly doubled from 640 (4.1%) of 15,588 graduates to 1,253 (6.1%) of 18,486 in 2022. The number of psychiatry residency programs increased from 183 in 2011 to 352 in 2022. Leaders in education said there are likely multiple reasons for the rising interest in psychiatry over the past decade—including the increase in residency slots generally. But they agree the pandemic and heightened attention to social determinants of health have dramatically raised the profile of mental health.

Read more

Author: Mark Moran

Published online: April 23, 2022