A survey of the views of trainees in psychiatry regarding religious issues

Abstract

Although 94% of Americans believe in God, little is known about the religiosity of psychiatric residents and the role of religion in residents’ practice. We aimed to determine residents’ perceptions about (1) the importance of knowledge of religious beliefs, practices and priority of psychotherapy, psychopharmacology and general medical patients and (2) the relative difficulty religious issues presented compared with race, age, gender and sexuality.

All psychiatric trainees in one training program during two academic years were surveyed (n = 96). The 38 respondents (40%) reported a substantial degree of religiosity [high belief (74%), high practise (50%), high priority (71%)]. Significantly more residents reported that it was more important to know about the religiosity of psychotherapy patients than of psychopharmacology or general medical patients. Race was the only issue that the majority of residents reported as presenting more difficulty than religion.

In conclusion, the subgroup of residents who responded to the survey were more religious than expected, based on previous surveys of psychiatrists. They clearly differentiated psychotherapy patients from others when considering the importance of religion. That residents viewed religion to be a challenging issue underlines the need for further training and clinical focus on religion.