Forensic psychiatry: a comprehensive residency program at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine.

The professions of law and psychiatry are currently interacting with significant intensity and frequency to the extent that involvement of the mental health professional in a wide ranging number of legal arenas has become an essential adjunct to the fair and equitable dispensation of justice. The psychiatrist may become involved in civil matters dealing with testamentary capacity, contractual competency, guardianship, personal injury, marriage and dissolution, child custody, and involuntary hospitalization. Psychiatric opinion testimony is also critical in criminal cases involving the mental state of the alleged offender from the standpoint of fitness for trial or criminal accountability at the time of commission of the alleged offense. I As society becomes more sophisticated, the psychological nuances of behavior and experience become increasingly significant to the extent that forensic medicine,2 specifically forensic psychiatry, has become one of the most rapidly developing and expanding areas in both of the related disciplines. 3 As a result, the practice of forensic psychiatry is emerging as a recognized subspecialty of psychiatry. And, with the establishment of the American Board of Forensic Psychiatry, it has become essential that standardized training programs in forensic psychiatry be developed throughout the country. 5 In this regard, Robert Sadoff, M.D., a widely known author and educator who has conducted numerous surveys of teaching programs in the area of forensic psychiatry, has stressed the fact that more university centers should have greater input into forensic psychiatry. Unfortunately, physicians in training generally have insufficient exposure to forensic psychiatry to prepare themselves for the medico-legal problems which are encountered in an active forensic practice. One writer has noted that, despite the great importance of forensic medicine to physicians and psychiatrists, the available education and exposure during their professional schooling is grossly inadequate.8