Although guidelines to ensure the quality of postgraduate psychiatric training in Europe are provided both by the statements of the European Federation of Psychiatric Trainees (EFPT) and the UEMS Psychiatry Section's European Training Requirements, actual training conditions in different European countries have been documented to vary widely. Furthermore, most trainees are unaware of the existence of such guidelines.

The test your own training (TYOT) project set out to create an easy-to-use online tool that allows trainees to assess how their own training compares in relation to the European standards, thereby empowering trainees all over Europe.

An EFPT Focus Group consisting of psychiatric trainees or early career psychiatrists from eleven European countries created a core survey of key aspects of psychiatry training, such as the duration of the training program, the availability of clinical and educational supervision, access to international professional literature, the use of a national logbook, based on the UEMS European Training Requirements and the EFPT statements. Additional subsets of questions were designed for specific domains such as theoretical training in psychiatry, psychotherapy training and the role of supervisors and training institutions. Next, the questions were transferred to a suitable online hosting platform, which allows to automatically provide feedback in an algorithmic fashion about how the trainee’s experience compares to the European standards.

The TYOT platform will be launched in January 2017 and the first results will be presented at the European Congress of Psychiatry 2017. For more information about the TYOT tool please visit http://efpt.eu/training/tyot/.

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

Migration and its effects in the life of skilled health workforce immigrants are a concern. However, the perceived challenges and advantages of being an immigrant trainee and their views on having access to local opportunities have not been studied so far. This can potentially play an important role in trainees’ future decisions to migrate.

This work has focused in exploring the perceptions of immigrant psychiatry trainees in several European countries about feeling discriminated, the circumstances they felt discriminated and how this perception affected their future migratory plans.

A semi-structured questionnaire was circulated to psychiatry trainees in Europe between 2013 and 2014.

More than one in ten trainees across Europe were immigrants already. Top host countries were UK, Switzerland and Sweden. Approximately one in twenty trainees across Europe had the perception of feeling discriminated or not having the same opportunities as the native trainees, especially concerning the work and academic conditions and the social and financial conditions. On the other hand, nearly one in ten trainees felt they had the same opportunities. The country with the highest level of satisfactionwas the UK and with the lowest was Ireland. Almost half of the psychiatry trainees who felt discriminated in their previous migratory experience want to migrate again.

A high number of immigrant psychiatry trainees feels that they do not have the same opportunities as local trainees and they are considering migrating again. Further research on feeling discriminated by immigrant workforce is necessary to clarify this differences.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Migration of medical professionals has a global impact on healthcare and services, including on mental health. Exploring the reasons for migration and why psychiatric trainees consider to migrate to certain countries is therefore crucial to understand the decision-making process related to migration of psychiatric trainees as well as of future specialists.

The aims of this Brain Drain Survey, was to research which countries most trainees in Europe migrate to (host countries) and for which reasons trainees choose to migrate to these countries (“pull factors”).

In a multicenter, cross-sectional study, data was collected in 33 countries. As part of the survey, all participants responded to a questionnaire exploring trainees’ experiences and attitudes towards migration.

Our results showed that Sweden, Switzerland and the UK were all significant net hosts. The percentage of immigrants varied between these countries. One of the main contributors as a “pull” factor was unsurprisingly, salary. It is notable that all three-host countries were within the highest wage brackets within our survey.

Psychiatric trainees tend to migrate to countries with higher income.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Recruitment in to psychiatry is a long-standing concern in many countries, with low proportions of medical graduates choosing it as a specialty and ongoing stigma from within the medical profession. In other countries, the reverse problem is the case, with too many doctors wishing to enter psychiatry and insufficient training places available.

To understand the current situation within Europe with regards to recruitment in to psychiatry and to identify existing initiatives designed to boost recruitment.

The European Federation of Psychiatric Trainees conducts an annual survey of all member organizations. This is purposive sampling via an online, semi-structured survey, which is completed by country representatives. The survey asks respondents to identify if their country has a problem with recruitment and if so whether there were too many or too few applicants for training places. Those countries identifying recruitment initiatives were asked to provide further details.

Data will be presented from the past three years (2014–2016). Around half of all countries have stated that recruitment is a concern in the EFPT country survey. Many report that the number of new psychiatrists is too low and vacancies are not being filled. A small number reported that the number of new psychiatrists is too high and there are not enough vacancies. Of those countries reporting problems with recruitment around half describe initiatives to improve recruitment, which include financial incentives, careers fairs, mentoring schemes and a whole host of other projects.

Recruitment in to psychiatry remains a serious problem in many European countries, but there are a wide range of initiatives, which aim to combat this shortfall.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Psychopaths are incapable of feeling empathy and guilt, being responsible for most violent crimes. To date, confinement has been the option of choice to minimize the harm they inflict. However, a deeper understanding of the neurobiology of psychopathy may lead to new insight on possible treatment approaches.

This work aims to review the current knowledge in psychopathy treatment.

A literature search of MEDLINE (2000-present) was conducted using the search terms “psychopathy” + “treatment” and “drug therapy”.

Defects in the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex have been implicated in the pathological basis of psychopathy. The most affected areas are the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPC) and the associated anterior cingulated cortex. Alterations in connectivity between the amygdala and the VMPC with other areas of the brain have been demonstrated and seem to be responsible for the non-empathetic, unemotional, and amoral features of psychopaths. Also, they present an increase in dopamine turnover and metabolism and a serotonin dysregulation.

As not all individuals with the biological substrate for psychopathy become violent, it seems that plasticity in forebrain circuits may allow the development of more prosocial responses, especially in youth. Some authors emphasize the need to address other behaviours that can be responsible for violent actions, namely, impulsive aggression. Some drugs have shown efficacy in controlling impulsive aggression.

Pharmacological approaches to treating psychopathy have been disappointing. A more reasonable goal would be to focus on impulsive aggression, for which treatment effectiveness has been demonstrated. Additional research is needed if we hope to design rational therapeutic strategies for this disorder.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.