ABPN Continuing Certification Requirements (2026)

If you hold a certificate from the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, staying certified means meeting the ABPN continuing certification requirements in every three-year block. Here is what the program asks for right now, what counts as CME, and where the 2025 changes landed.

We checked these requirements against the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology’s website in October 2026. Rules change, so confirm with the ABPN before your block ends.

The short answer

The ABPN Continuing Certification (CC) program runs in three-year blocks, with an assessment due on a 10-year or ongoing article-based schedule.
You need an average of 30 Category 1 CME credits per year, which works out to 90 credits per three-year block.
Self-assessment is now 16 credits per block, down from 24, and passing your article exams in the ABCC pathway satisfies it.
Clinically active diplomates complete one Improvement in Medical Practice (PIP) activity every block.
The article-based pathway requires 20 article exams per certification every three-year block, starting in 2025.

ABPN continuing certification requirements at a glance

The ABPN organizes continuing certification into a few separate pieces. Most run on the three-year block, and you report all of them by attestation in the ABPN Physician Portal.

Requirement	What the ABPN asks for	How often
Medical license	An active, full, and unrestricted license to practice medicine	Ongoing
CME	An average of 30 Category 1 credits per year (90 per block)	Every three-year block
Self-assessment	16 SA credits, or completion of the ABCC pathway in that block	Every three-year block
Improvement in Medical Practice (PIP)	One PIP activity, if you are clinically active	Every three-year block
Patient safety	One activity, for diplomates whose first CC block began in 2017 or later	One time
Assessment	20 article exams per certification (ABCC pathway), or a CC exam	Every block (ABCC) or every 10 years (exam)

CME: 90 credits per block

The ABPN’s CME page says diplomates must complete an average of 30 CME credits per year, averaged over three years. That means 90 credits by the end of each block.

The ABPN accepts Category 1 credit accredited through the ACCME, Category 1A credit from the American Osteopathic Association, and credit from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. The credit can be any Category 1 activity relevant to your field of practice.

You choose your own CME, and general CME activities do not need ABPN approval. The ABPN says it is not a CME provider and does not sponsor, certify, or approve CME activities.
CME you complete counts toward every ABPN certification you hold, so a psychiatrist with a subspecialty certificate does not need separate CME for each.
Credits earned beyond the requirement for one block do not carry forward to the next block.
You attest to your CME in the Physician Portal and do not upload certificates, but you must keep records because every diplomate is subject to audit.

If you want a refresher on what the Category 1 label actually means, our guide to AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ walks through it.

The AMA credit option

The ABPN’s August 2025 quarterly update describes a newer option: after you complete a CC block, you can claim 60 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ for that block by submitting your CC Status Certificate from the Physician Portal along with the AMA form. The CME page says this can be claimed only once per three-year block. Those credits come from completing the block itself, so they are not a substitute for the 90 credits you need to finish it.

Self-assessment: 16 credits, or ABCC

In 2025 the ABPN reduced the self-assessment requirement from 24 SA-CME credits to 16 SA credits per three-year block. How you meet it depends on which assessment pathway you are in.

If you are in the ABCC (article-based) pathway and complete your article exams within the current block, you have met the full 16-credit self-assessment requirement for that block. Article exams from a previous block do not count toward the current one.

If you are in the CC Examination pathway, you need 16 SA-CME credits per block. The ABPN says not all Category 1 CME meets its self-assessment standard, so choose activities from the ABPN Approved CC Activities List. A regular Category 1 course counts toward your 90 CME credits, but it does not count as self-assessment unless it appears on that list.

Exam-pathway diplomates also have non-CME self-assessment options, such as a peer-reviewed article indexed in MEDLINE or participation in an approved registry. Each qualifying option is worth 8 SA credits, you can use up to two types, and some require preapproval. Diplomates actively in the ABCC pathway cannot apply these options to their block.

According to the ABPN’s June 2025 quarterly update, SA-CME credits count toward the 90-credit CME total. A diplomate who earns 16 SA-CME credits would need 74 more Category 1 credits to reach 90.

Improvement in Medical Practice (PIP)

The ABPN requires one PIP activity every CC block. You pick one of two modules.

The Clinical Module has you review your own patient charts on a specific topic, such as a diagnosis or a type of treatment.
The Feedback Module has you collect feedback on your clinical performance from peers or patients through questionnaires or surveys.

Each module has three steps (an initial assessment, an improvement plan you put in place, and a reassessment) completed within a 24-month period. If you use the Feedback Module, use the same feedback option for the initial assessment and the reassessment. The ABPN does not collect your patient or peer data, but if you are audited you must explain your process and improvement plan.

PIP applies to diplomates who are clinically active. The ABPN’s clinical activity status page says diplomates whose work is mainly research, academic, or administrative, and those who are not practicing, do not need to complete PIP. You set your status yourself in the Physician Portal.

The article-based pathway (ABCC)

Most diplomates now meet the assessment piece through the Article-Based Continuing Certification pathway instead of sitting a secure exam every 10 years. You read ABPN-selected journal articles and answer questions on each.

You must pass 20 article exams per certification in each three-year block. The ABPN had announced 25 earlier in 2025, then lowered it to 20.
Each certification allows a maximum of 27 attempts per block, so you can fail no more than 7 article exams.
The passing standard is unchanged at four of five questions correct, and you cannot retake an article after completing it.
Starting in 2025, you must attest that you passed at least one professionalism-tagged article per block, for certifications that have tagged articles.

The alternative is the CC Examination pathway, with an exam every 10 years. The August 2025 update says 2026 is the last year the ABPN offers combined CC exams that cover two or more specialties or subspecialties. Single CC exams continue.

Patient safety and fees

The patient safety activity is a one-time requirement for diplomates whose first CC block began in 2017 or later. Once you have attested to it in the portal, you do not repeat it.

The ABPN also charges an annual CC fee through the Physician Portal. The amount depends on how many certificates you hold, so check the current fee schedule on the ABPN website rather than relying on an older figure.

How to plan your block

Log in to the Physician Portal first. It shows which requirements you have completed, what is outstanding, and your due dates for the current block. If you are behind, the ABPN asks diplomates to contact it directly at questions@abpn.org.

Then spread your CME across the three years. A steady 30 credits a year beats a scramble in the final months, since extra credits do not roll over. Keep your certificates in one place in case of audit.

Travel Medical Seminars offers Audio-Digest self-study courses in psychiatry and neurology, in a 10-credit short course or a 20-credit full course, each designated for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. You study at your own pace and complete testing online. These courses count toward the general CME total; they are not ABPN self-assessment activities, so use the ABPN Approved CC Activities List or the ABCC pathway for that piece.

ABPN continuing certification requirements: CME, SA, and ABCC