any engineers or physicists going into psych?

[mxns]

Are there any psychiatrists here (or students interested in psychiatry) who majored in math, physics, chem, CS, or some sort of engineering?

I like psychiatry because it gives me things to think about. But sometimes the field seems very "fluffy" and I feel frustrated. Does anybody who is seriously considering going into psychiatry ever feel this way?

What sorts of opportunities might psychiatrists have to use that basic sciences / math-oriented part of their brains? If it matters, I think I am interested in a career that includes substantial amounts of research (most likely basic sci or translational, although I could also see myself going into more of a humanities research direction). I am not MD/PhD.

Any insight or anecdotes would be highly appreciated.

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[OldPsychDoc]

This guy was an EE "back in the day".
And he's one of the smartest docs (of any specialty) that I know.

 

[mxns]

huh. Interesting. I actually recently met him (very briefly). His work doesn't seem to incorporate EE in any obvious way today (or does it?)... I haven't seen his CV, so I can't be sure about this.

 

[Shikima]

ECT is a form of EE, right?

In reality, all of the brain is bio-electric EE.

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

I was an EE, have an EE in my program too. Yep don't really use it, but so what, you have to major in something.

 

[Shikima]

If I had to, it'd be this program;

https://extension.ucdavis.edu/solr/unit brewing course listing?f[0]=im_field_ucde_area_of_study:1097

 

[hamstergang]

I was a comp. sci. major in undergrad, which was in the engineering school at my university. I greatly enjoyed (and excelled in) physics, advanced math, and the like. And now, I'm about to enter the second year of my child/adolescent psych fellowship, and I love this field too.

I picked the field because I enjoyed the work (interacting with the patients, etc) and found it fascinating. I did initially feel it was a lot fluffier, as you put it, than my undergrad work. But the more I learn, the more I see that this isn't quite so right. I realize that I'm actually practicing science and have to understand what the sometimes limited science available actually tells us.

I don't actually use my engineering knowledge in day to day work, but I feel it's taught me a bit of how to think in ways different than most of my colleagues.

 

[Jorje286]

http://www.dzirasalabs.com/

Computational psychiatry is also an emerging field. I'm sure you could also use your mathematical background in more epidemiology/clinical type of research. Not many people who go into psych have these sort of skills, so that can really work to your advantage if you're into research.

 

[thoffen]

I was a CompE. Don't incorporate anything directly except for a couple of small programming projects I've done. That said, there are dozens of things I could be doing to incorporate the two. I do feel that my background provides a useful intellectual framework that I wouldn't have had I gone straight into psychiatry.

 

[Armadillos]

ChemE here, I think the general principles of problem solving learned in engineering school have been very helpful.

But when it comes to the actual math/physics/chemistry, if you gave me a high school chemistry or calculus test right now I would fail miserably.

I will say as a word of warning- engineers are easily the most academically arrogant group of people I've ever been exposed to (which says something coming from a doctor), so if you want success in any field outside of engineering make sure you don't have the stereotypical engineer attitude towards other disciplines.

 

[smalltownpsych]

Are there any psychiatrists here (or students interested in psychiatry) who majored in math, physics, chem, CS, or some sort of engineering?

I like psychiatry because it gives me things to think about. But sometimes the field seems very "fluffy" and I feel frustrated. Does anybody who is seriously considering going into psychiatry ever feel this way?

What sorts of opportunities might psychiatrists have to use that basic sciences / math-oriented part of their brains? If it matters, I think I am interested in a career that includes substantial amounts of research (most likely basic sci or translational, although I could also see myself going into more of a humanities research direction). I am not MD/PhD.

Any insight or anecdotes would be highly appreciated.

The fluff would be people advocating treatments and conceptualizations that are not grounded in science. New agey garbage like crystal healing, shakra centering, moonbeam therapy, primal scream therapy, rebirthing therapy, recovering of repressed memories. All of these are practices that a solid psychiatrist or psychologist would not be endorsing or utilizing and some have been proven harmful. If you are referring to interpersonal dynamics as fluff then you might have a problem with the field.

 

[michaelrack]

What sorts of opportunities might psychiatrists have to use that basic sciences / math-oriented part of their brains?.

any type of research/academic psych research, especially that involving fMRI. Also would be useful for psych research involving EEG:
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q...ved=0CBsQgQMwAGoVChMI5ayN9sqSxgIVw82ACh3d3gCB



These opportunities aren't generally avail in priv practice

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

It is impossible to propose any research without the reviewers suggesting that you add fMRI now days. Personally, I'm so over functional imaging (I know, heresy right?).

 

[clausewitz2]

It is impossible to propose any research without the reviewers suggesting that you add fMRI now days. Personally, I'm so over functional imaging (I know, heresy right?).

My PhD dissertation centered around fMRI and PET results. I am equally over functional imaging.

Also, no, I cannot accept that engineers are the most academically arrogant people around. You forget physicists:

 

[mxns]

I will say as a word of warning- engineers are easily the most academically arrogant group of people I've ever been exposed to (which says something coming from a doctor), so if you want success in any field outside of engineering make sure you don't have the stereotypical engineer attitude towards other disciplines.

Hahah, I agree with this. I hope I don't fall in the camp of arrogant physicists/engineers... I just think that it's a way of thinking that miss now that I'm several years into medical training. (I would also probably fail a high school calculus exam right now...) I like the critical thinking and theoretical aspect of physics and I think that's why I am drawn to psychiatry.... but then at the same time I also feel like most people who are interested in psychiatry and social issues are people who don't like math and physics.

I have heard of doing biomarker research in psychiatry, which isn't exactly physical sciences, but at least is more in the realm of computational biology and basic science.

 

[MidwestMD2015]

My undergrad was in engineering. Starting psychiatry residency now!

I'm thinking about a career in academic medicine, and a technical background seems beneficial.

Though engineering skills are not quite as relevant in day-to-day practice (it still gives a great framework for thinking/problem solving though), there are so so many amazing opportunities in research! On the interview trail last year, I was always looking to see what neat or unusual collaborations a department might have...and there was something to be found in every department with solid funding. (There's a link here for funding by department and PI in 2014). For just one example, I remember this group being mentioned to me on the interview trail; seems neat: Karl Deisseroth, Stanford, Optogenetics/bioengineering

As for your feeling that 'sometimes the field seems very "fluffy"'--that's something you have to figure out for yourself, and maybe more experiences with psychiatry/psychiatrists and their practice methods can help. Even though my exposure to psychiatry is pretty limited since I'm only starting residency, I've never felt that the field seemed 'fluffy' in the way I think you're describing.

 

[Tennessee_Sour]

Not a resident (or registrar) in anything yet, but my pre-medical degree was a BA/BSc in mathematics, physics and philosophy. Actually, compared to the formal and physical sciences, all of medicine is relatively inexact, but it doesn't frustrate me. The richness of nuance is part of psychiatry's appeal, I think; it emboldens us to accept mystery and exercise that quality Keats called Negative Capability. Still, I think a love of reason would not be wasted in or on psychiatry; it seems a thorough interview and rigorous formulation are in as much need of perception and rationality as any other diagnostic aspect of medicine. I've seen "fluffy" gastroenterology, just because the person practicing it was rather "sloppy."

I'm interested in pursuing research as well, and psychiatry's diversity is one of its great appeals as a platform for that. Within the spectrum from hard science to speculative philosophy, your research could potentially cover basic neuroscience, clinical neurology/psychiatry, social studies, philosophy of mind or history of medicine, for example. In that regard, the individual has some control over how fuzzy the field is to them. I understand, however, that at some stage we all have to "work for the man" and different work and training environments develop different cultures, so one might be discouraged by the way psychiatry is practiced in their department. I can't really speak to that from experience; the registrars at my hospital seem to have a fair degree of autonomy and a variety of interests and opinions.

 

[Monkey House]

I did Electrical Engineering (EE) as well as Computer Sciences (CS) - It is an interesting toolkit to bring to psychiatry. In this era of EMRs, big data, and apps - having familiarity with some of the technical aspects can be useful. Silicon Valley is actually pouring a boat load of money into 'mobile mental health' and there is much potential - as well as opportunity for risk and harm - in how novel technology will be used for psychiatric care. Being able to 'speak' the clinical and engineering languages creates a novel frame to approach these issues. I would certainly and strong encourage any EE or CS or EECS folks to apply into psychiatry and am happy to answer any questions you may have - just send me a direct message.

 

[Wilf]

Are there any psychiatrists here (or students interested in psychiatry) who majored in math, physics, chem, CS, or some sort of engineering?

I like psychiatry because it gives me things to think about. But sometimes the field seems very "fluffy" and I feel frustrated. Does anybody who is seriously considering going into psychiatry ever feel this way?

What sorts of opportunities might psychiatrists have to use that basic sciences / math-oriented part of their brains? If it matters, I think I am interested in a career that includes substantial amounts of research (most likely basic sci or translational, although I could also see myself going into more of a humanities research direction). I am not MD/PhD.

I think it is great for engineers or physicists to go into psychiatry. In my program we have two engineers and they bring a much more reality based perspective to the field. Right now our field is much too influenced by the liberal arts crowd.

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

Back in the day, if you were not a biology major, you were considered unique and atypical. They would consider chemistry or physics OK, but even the social sciences where a stretch for entrance into medical school. If you came from fine arts and got in, your parents must have donated a lot of money to the school or something. At least this was what we believed looking at who did get in.

Now days, just being impressive and having a good GPA with good scores is the advice. People seem to come in from every major, including modern dance.

 

[Shikima]

Underwater Basket weaving FTW!

 

[FlowRate]

I guess this is a bit of an old thread, but just wanted to enjoy the engineering camaraderie. I was ChemE, but sorta wish in retrospect I did CS, as all my research stuff now is programming heavy.