Clinical Psychology PhD and MD/DO?

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Does anyone know of programs that allow you to complete a PhD in clinical psychology and then a medical degree? How about someone with a PhD in clinical psychology who went on to medical school? How long does the PhD typically take for people who have gone this route?

A PhD in Clincal Psychology and then an MD (presumably with board certification in Psychiatry) seems redundant to me. It's like earning an OD and then becoming an MD opthamologist. Both degrees allow different approaches to similar problems and do not really mesh well together.

It is certainly possible for someone with a pre-exsiting PhD to enter med school and I'm sure it will be a positive aspect of your application.

If you are interested in Psychiatry, it would seem to me that your PhD would be best focused in general Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, General Neuroscience, Physiological Optics or the like.

Originally Posted by Gfunk6

A PhD in Clincal Psychology and then an MD (presumably with board certification in Psychiatry) seems redundant to me. It's like earning an OD and then becoming an MD opthamologist. Both degrees allow different approaches to similar problems and do not really mesh well together.
.

I'll have to disagree. This is like saying it's redundant to get a PhD in Pathology and become an MD-Pathologist. I'd think the more experiences you have in an area, the better practioner you'll be.

Doesn't a person with a PHD in clinical psychology and a person who is a Psychiatrist basically do the same thing? Just that the Psychiatrist can perscribe meds?

I am bumping this question up because I am wondering the same thing.. is there such a things as MD-PhD programs that let you do you PhD in psychology? I do not think it is redundant at all; my guess would be that the PhD in psychology aspect would give opportunities to learn more about research, testing and theory, that would be a little hard to come by if one wanted to be a well rounded Psychiatrist. But does this kind of set up exist?

^rebumping as I am about to finish my PsyD and am curious on the MD route now

Originally Posted by BellaPsyD

^rebumping as I am about to finish my PsyD and am curious on the MD route now

You may find this post from the forum sticky helpful.

Originally Posted by BellaPsyD

^rebumping as I am about to finish my PsyD and am curious on the MD route now

My question is simply: why?

The PsyD allows you to practice Clinical Psychology. Are you interested in spending 4 years for med school (200k or so of debt) then 3 years for psychiatry residency, just to practice with meds? Or is there something else I'm missing?

Hello,

I'm in AFROTC at Duke now and hoping to go into med school for pediatrics/psychiatry -- I'm a psych major here and getting very involved with research and doing an independent study project, etc -- I was wondering how it works if I wanted to get a PhD after/during med school and how that would work.......

also........doing it with the AF means that my education is fully funded.....so I'm not concerned with the cost/being in debt. I just would like to continue research and feel that it would help me be a better physician (I'm doing research on eating disorders and interested in interventions, etc).

I'm so very late replying (forgive me)- but my reasoning is: majority of my patients benefit from therapy; however there are those that just simply need medicine in order to even benefit from therapy (Bipolar, Schizophrenia, etc). I truly believe int he art of combination (both therapy and meds). I realize this can make me unpopular in both fields, but that's not my concern. For me, it's about providing the best possible care I can.

To be honest, you don't sound like you'd be a very good MD to me.

I don't think you can MD/PhD in clinical psych. Very few, if any, of the courses will be similar. I know it's +4 years to your med school if you MD/PhD in neuroscience but that's the closest you get if you want to get your PhD while doing your MD.

As for people asking the point of this, a licensed psychologist with a PhD/PsyD can administer alot of forms of analysis that cannot be done by somebody who just has an MA, MEd or MD. If you're interested to know the fine line between the professions, read on.

The difference in their approaches -

The reason people usually don't MD/PhD in psych is because at that level of study, they're simply different jobs. At the master's level, they're different approaches (therapy vs. meds as people like to generalize). However, at the doctoral level, psychology will teach you forms of psychoanalysis and interpretation of it. This is usually not directly relevant to the management of psychoactive medication. It's the psychologist's job to help make that information relevant to the medication and therapy (often meaning simplifying it to something a psychiatrist could work with). As a psychiatrist, you'd give a therapeutic approach, then prescribe or modify medication. It may sound like the psychiatrist here is ignorant of much information, but they really aren't. They're simply trying to fix the problem, rather than identify it. For problems strongly linked to a medical condition or problems with simple psychology behind them, a psychiatrist is ideal--sometimes even better than a psychologist--to analyze the situation. The professions often work hand in hand, but they are by no means the same thing. If you do a MD/PhD in psych, you'd be acting as the psychologist and the psychiatrist in the situation. You'd be handling less patients given the fact that you'd most likely take time to analyze and give therapy, then consider prescription. You'd make much less money (if that's an issue) because you'd be overqualified and trying to work three fields of practise (analysis, counseling, psychiatry) and unfortunately, two of them pay much less than psychiatry alone.

Originally Posted by jonnyisleet

To be honest, you don't sound like you'd be a very good MD to me.

Lee Burnett's law in the first sentence of first post! Awesome!

Word to the newbie: to say or imply someone won't be a good doctor due to something in their post makes whatever you later say look foolish. Also it's forbidden on the site. So please knock that part off and you'll have a reasonably good time posting here.

Originally Posted by Neuronix

Lee Burnett's law in the first sentence of first post! Awesome!

Word to the newbie: to say or imply someone won't be a good doctor due to something in their post makes whatever you later say look foolish. Also it's forbidden on the site. So please knock that part off and you'll have a reasonably good time posting here.

S/he also bumped a thread last bumped in 2008.

jonny, besides what Neuro said, it's also kind of silly to respond to posts that were made several years ago by people who probably haven't been back to this forum since.