Am J Psychiatry 1987; 144:1461-1465
Copyright © 1987 by American Psychiatric Association
The evolving subspecialization of psychiatry: implications for the profession
J Yager and DG Langsley
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles 90024.
Psychiatry is likely to evolve into a number of subspecialty areas,
paralleling developments in other medical specialties. These changes are
impelled both from within psychiatry, where the rapid increase in knowledge
and skills makes mastery of the entire field by any one practitioner less
possible, and from without, related to new expectations for psychiatric
services from referral sources and patients, increasing competition by
other physicians and nonphysician mental health care providers, and
shifting reimbursement patterns. The authors discuss the advantages and
disadvantages of subspecialization as well as implications for psychiatric
practitioners and training programs.
