The role of medical school electives in the choice of child psychiatry as a subspecialty.

Part of child psychiatry's recruitment problem stems from defections among medical students who were planning careers in child psychiatry when they entered medical school The authors present data showing that between 1974 and 1984 University of Maryland Medical School graduates specializing in psychiatry were more than twice as likely to enter fellowships in child and adolescent psychiatry if they were participants in the Combined Accelerated Program in Psychiatry (CAPP) as medical students. The CAPP, a 4-year medical school track that contains a strong child psychiatry component, appears to prevent the erosion of students' interest in child psychiatry.