Results of the 1972 APA Self-Assessment Program

In 1972 the American Psychiatric Association offered its membership a newly revised Psychiatric Knowledge and Skills Self-Assessment Program. The results reported in this paper were based on the performance of 2,394 participants who indicated that they had used the materials as a "take-home, closed-book" examination. It was found that there was a gradual falloff in psychiatric knowledge with an increasing number of years since the completion of residency training. This trend was more noticeable in the multiple-choice questions than in the patient management section of the program. The authors, while drawing their conclusions with caution, note that the information obtained in this program should disclose "blind spots" in the knowledge of practicing psychiatrists.