[Use of Simulated Pacients in Psychiatry].

Introduction: Scientific advances and the complexity of human knowledge generate a constant need for creating new tools intended to facilitate learning in an agreeable and lasting form. Simulated patients are one of such tools in medical education. Standardized or simulated patients are actors or people vigorously trained to represent a medical history or, if possible, specific physical findings with the purpose of using such representations as an educational and evaluating supplement in clinic practice. The use of simulated patients has been very well received, particularly in the psychiatric field; however, its usefulness in areas such as psychotherapy or evaluation of residents remains questionable.

Methods: A search was made in PubMed with the MESH words ("Psychiatry/education" and "Patient Simulation"); a search was also made in LILACS and scholar Google using similar words.

Results: Simulated patients are widely used throughout the world in the psychiatry field and their usefulness as an academic tool for pre-graduate students is confirmed in most of the literature reviewed. One of the main benefits of the use of this kind of patients is the acquisition of specific abilities (e.g.: medical history recording); nevertheless, its efficacy in more complex experiences like psychotherapy or certification of psychiatry residents is questioned.

Conclusions: Notwithstanding the controversy, most of the literature reviewed confirms the benefits and acceptance of this methodology in the formation of students and psychiatrists.