In the training program for residents in psychiatry, scientific education and participation in research projects are relatively underdeveloped. This may result in a gap between recently acquired scientific knowledge and its implementation in clinical practice.
Since the start of the residency training in psychiatry in 1989 in the Vincent van Gogh Institute for Psychiatry, several research lines have been developed especially concerning dimensional diagnostic procedures, evaluation of treatment effects, stress and psychopathology, pharmacokinetics of psychotropic compounds and disordered impulse and aggression regulation. It is concluded that active participation in research projects by both psychiatrists and residents in psychiatry is increasingly mandatory due to social-economic en scientific developments. Despite several countervailing factors, the Vincent van Gogh Institute for Psychiatry has succeeded in the creation of a scientific orientation in the residency program resulting in a number of publications.
