Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship

Yilang Tang, MD, PhD
Associate professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Emory University
Addiction Psychiatrist, Substance Abuse Treatment Program
Atlanta VA Medical Center
Mental Health Science Line (116 A), Room GB 160
1670 Clairmont Road
Atlanta, GA 30033
Email

Ms. Ayanna Webb
6 Executive Park Drive NE
The Catherine Hardeman Suite
Atlanta, GA 30322
Phone: 404-727-2631
Email

PGY-5

3

$75,969 (PGY-5, 2023-24)

ACGME

4011221050 - Emory University School of Medicine Program

1113401F0

Note: All applicants must have completed an ACGME-accredited General Psychiatry Residency training in the United States or Canada, and have a valid, completely unrestricted Georgia Medical License prior to the starting date of the fellowship training. 

Welcome to the Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship Program at Emory University.

The Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship Program is a comprehensive program designed to meet the educational needs of its individual fellows. The program is ACGME (Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education) accredited and prepares our fellows to comfortably meet the requirements for American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) certification in Addiction Psychiatry.  More importantly, the fellowship prepares our fellows to become competent, successful addiction psychiatrists and leaders in the field.

Two-thirds of the year are spent at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Atlanta VA Healthcare System and the remainder at diverse training sites including Emory University, Grady Hospital, the Dekalb County Drug Court Program, and the internationally known treatment program, Talbott Recovery Campus.

At the Atlanta VA Healthcare System, fellows see patients in the Evaluation, Stabilization and Placement (ESP) outpatient clinic, the Substance Abuse Treatment Program’s (SATP) Consultation-Liaison (C&L) Service and the Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) Program. They learn how to screen for signs and symptoms of acute alcohol and drug withdrawal using standardized scales. They learn about supportive psychopharmacological interventions and detoxification for alcohol, opiates, and other substances of abuse. They learn the criteria for outpatient detoxification versus inpatient detoxification. The fellows are supervised when initiating treatment and while following up on patients until the patients are stable enough to enter the next phase of treatment. They coordinate referral of those patients to various rehabilitation programs including the Atlanta VA-based Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOPs) and residential treatment based on the patient placement criteria set by the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM). By the end of the rotation, fellows will develop a full sense of independence and competence to perform substance use disorder assessments and initial treatment plans. During the ESP rotation, fellows will also spend one afternoon a week at the Emory Healthcare Veterans Program evaluating patients with co-occurring disorders.

In the IOP at the Atlanta VA, the fellows work with a team of board-certified addiction psychiatrists, as well as psychologists, social workers, nurses, and addiction therapists.  They learn how to work with a multidisciplinary team to deliver evidence-based treatment in groups and individual settings. They get the opportunity to monitor the progress of each patient during treatment. Our University Model-IOP offers individualized lengths of treatment to meet patients’ needs based on their progress and availability to attend treatment. Fellows can also follow up with patients in the aftercare program to experience continuity of care beyond the intensive phase. During this rotation, fellows additionally spend one afternoon a week at Emory University’s Child and Adolescent Addiction Psychiatry Service to learn about the specifics of addiction in adolescents.

At Atlanta’s Grady Hospital and Dekalb County’s Drug Court, fellows learn about the treatment of substance use disorders in the community and the legal system. Additionally, at Talbot Recovery Campus, fellows have the unique opportunity to learn about private models of substance abuse treatment including treating impaired professionals like doctors, pilots, and attorneys.

The fellows also receive supervision on different modalities of evidence-based psychotherapeutic interventions throughout the VA- based portion of the fellowship (8 months) from clinical psychologists.

While clinical exposure is very valuable for the trainees, they are expected to learn and understand the literature on pertinent evidence-based treatments that they use during their rotations. There is protected didactic time (Wednesday mornings), and the didactics include lectures, psychiatry grand grounds, chapter reviews, and journal club.   We cover most of the APP Textbook of Substance Abuse Treatment in didactics and review landmark articles in our monthly Journal Club. We have an annual How-To-Teach project for scholarly activity in which each fellow develops a lecture on an addiction-related topic of their choice. These lectures get presented in the fellowship program to refine the trainee’s role as a subspecialty teacher.

It is more important than ever that professionals in this field learn to fully conceptualize the disease of addiction to help patients and their families. We believe that understanding the dynamics of the disease of addiction makes a significant difference in the lives of our patients as they work on their recovery.

The strength of our program is directly related to our dedicated faculty. Many of our faculty are former graduates of the program which speaks to our commitment and enthusiasm for the work we do. 

I am fortunate to have the invaluable support of Dr. C. Rashad Smith, our Associate Director. Dr. Smith is a talented clinician, passionate educator, and creative mind. He is dedicated to bringing new perspectives and experience to our clinical and administrative processes, that will enhance the training experience of our fellows and benefit our program overall.

Please refer to the links on the top right of this page for important additional information e.g. how to apply.

Specific questions about the program may be directed to our program coordinator, Ms. Ayanna Webb, or myself. 

Sincerely,

Yilang Tang, MD, PhD
Program Director, Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship Program
Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Emory University School of Medicine
Addiction Psychiatrist, Substance Abuse Treatment Program, Atlanta Veterans Affairs Healthcare System