Providing of mental health service is the main task of every country. Its implementation obviously depends on the number of professionally active psychiatrists. So the issues of a great importance for current psychiatry are determinants and consequences of the decision of specialization in this medical domain.

The aim of our work was, most of all, the assessment of motives of the choice of specialization in psychiatry from the perspective of physicians-practitioners.

In order to do it, we prepared an original questionnaire, which contained 22 questions (some of them were of multiple choice) concerned with, i. e. sociodemographical and professional aspects. The study group was created from 132 psychiatrists (including 33 men), participating in international scientific-training conference in Wisla in 2011. Average age was 43 years (SD=9.7), and seniority in psychiatry - 15 years (SD=9.8). The obtained results were statistically analyzed using Statistica 8.0. Detailed results of our analysis will be presented during conference.

The results of our questionnaire may be used to improve the image of psychiatry as attractive path of professional career (almost 95% of questionnaired physicians do not regret their decision!).

The results may also become an essential argument during the discussion about current problems in psychiatry, for example problem of occupational burnout, and possibilities of their solution.