Training in Psychiatry is especially debated since the biological, psychological and social perspectives need to be integrated in the education of Early-Career Psychiatrists (ECP).

To describe the opinion of ECP about the training received and to evaluate their self-confidence in therapeutic interventions.

A training event for ECP from all over Italy takes place in Rome yearly. A 30-item ad hoc questionnaire with both yes/no and rating scale answers has been administered to all the participants in the event.

Over the past three years 224 questionnaires were collected from 216 last-year trainees and 8 recently qualified psychiatrists (68.5% women, mean age 30.5 ± 3.5). Only 13% of participants was globally satisfied with his/her training program in psychiatry, the most of them were only partially or a little satisfied (51.4% and 32.0% respectively). the most critical training areas were Forensic Psychiatry and Psychotherapy followed by Psychiatric Rehabilitation. Conversely, Clinical Psychiatry and Psychopharmacology were the most satisfying areas of training. Likewise, ECP felt themselves most confident in Clinical Psychiatry (87.9%) and Psychopharmacology (48.7%); whereas the most uncomfortable areas were Forensic Psychiatry (62.5%), Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (37.2%), and Dual Diagnosis/Substance-Abuse Related Disorders (33.9%).

The 45% of ECP complained that Psychotherapy is a critical issue. Despite the 46.4% of participants had supervision within the training program (less than two hours per week), the 87.4% seek help from external psychotherapeutic training programs.

To achieve a satisfactory educational standard and an adequate self confidence, network programs (within Italy and/or Europe) might be helpful.