Graduate Medical Education

Goals of the psychiatry residency program include training residents to function at a "state of the art" level and providing them with the tools and understanding to maintain this level of practice throughout their professional careers. The UAB Depression and Suicide Center has a tripartite mission involving research, clinical care, and education. As part of its educational mission, the DSC seeks to train the next generation of psychiatrists on the treatment of depression and suicidality with a focus on treatment resistant mood disorders.

Residents receive 26 hours of classroom education that provides an in-depth understanding of the etiology, diagnosis, and treatment of mood disorders. They also experience a directly supervised experience in the Treatment Resistant Depression Clinic. In their fourth year of training they participate in an Advanced Psychopharmacology Seminar. They also receive training and experience in the use of esketamine, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, vagal nerve stimulation, and electroconvulsive therapy.

The training program offered by the Depression and Suicide Center seeks to help UAB psychiatry residents achieve state of the art practice when it comes to managing treatment resistant mood disorders in the following ways:

1. An outpatient experience in psychiatry with a focus on advanced psychopharmacology and psychotherapy to manage treatment resistant depression and other complex mood disorders. 
2. Mastering advanced skills for psychiatric assessment and treatment in outpatient settings.
3. Consolidating knowledge of diagnosis and patient management.
4. Developing a depth of knowledge, experience and understanding of the pathophysiology of mood disorders and their treatment.
5. Understanding how and when to use advanced therapies for treatment resistant mood disorders.
6. Developing a firm grasp of the underpinnings and practice of outpatient psychotherapy.
7. Understanding how knowledge of the pathophysiology underlying psychiatric illness led to the medications currently available and informed us of the mechanisms by which they work. 
8. Understand the process of developing new drugs from discovery through registration so that they can critically evaluate the literature and judge whether and how to introduce new medications and devices into the treatment of their patients.