Geriatric Psychiatry versus Neuropsychiatry

[FrasierMD]

I recently decided to pursue fellowship in Geriatric psych (woot!). While making the decision, I found myself going back and forth between it and neuropsychiatry. Ultimately, geri psych felt a better fit because I so deeply enjoy the work with families, coordinating complex systems of care, as well as ECT/TMS/geriatric depression management. Hoping to have a niche in health services for those with Dementia, early diagnosis/management of MCI. I was curious if others have debated between these two fellowships and what contributed to your ultimate decision?

For those currently in or having already completed geri fellowship, did you find a good amount of overlap in training with neuropsych?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[SuperSoccer19]

I just decided to go back and do a geropsych fellowship for a lot of the reasons you described (and several that completely irrelevant). I had also thought about Psychosomatics and Neuropsych, but chose Geri for a few reasons. It seemed like more programs were accredited and there's an actual subspecialty boards, so I was thinking it was a little more credible and respected, but that was only a small reason. In my case, I've been doing outpatient with mostly a younger population for four years and I also felt this was a very specific area of weakness for me, so that was another reason why I went this route (probably not relevant in your situation, but was likely the main reason). When it came to job descriptions post-fellowship, it also seemed like these would be more compatible with my interests. I also had a few friends that did Geri and heard nothing but positive feedback.

It seemed like different programs had a lot of different options and rotations and there was a lot of inconsistency. One program that I looked at did not even offer ECT or inpatient which was odd to me.

I am starting off cycle later this year--ask me next year and I may have a better response.