Psychiatry

[Piston95]

hello everyone, I just had a question for you all. I don't know a ton of things about osteopathic medicine, but I do know a few things. First off, my dad (an M.D) works with a lot of D.Os and hold them in very high regard, and that the 2 degrees are essentially equal. I also know that most D.Os go into primary care, however, this has been changing recently. My situation is that I've always wanted to be a psychiatrist and I was wondering if any of you know if it is pretty common for D.Os to end up in psychiatry? (please forgive my ignorance if this is a stupid question)...thanks!

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[JaggerPlate]

hello everyone, I just had a question for you all. I don't know a ton of things about osteopathic medicine, but I do know a few things. First off, my dad (an M.D) works with a lot of D.Os and hold them in very high regard, and that the 2 degrees are essentially equal. I also know that most D.Os go into primary care, however, this has been changing recently. My situation is that I've always wanted to be a psychiatrist and I was wondering if any of you know if it is pretty common for D.Os to end up in psychiatry? (please forgive my ignorance if this is a stupid question)...thanks!

Fair question. The thing is that DOs only entering primary care is an outdated mindset. Definitely not true now a days. A good portion go - as most schools are heavily interested in primary care - but DOs match into all specialties of medicine. Now, with regards to your question ... DOs (from what I understand) are well represented in psych. There are DO Psych residences, but I think they also match well into MD. Good luck.

 

[Chocolate Bear]

Depending on whom you ask, Psychiatry is considered primary care a significant amount of the time. This specialty is especially underrepresented in rural areas, as well. Also, Psychiatry is usually not considered a highly competitive residency, so it's even less likely that you need to worry about a "DO vs. MD" bias from a residency director. Go for it!

 

[GreenShirt]

About 65% of DOs go into primary care, so about 35% specialize. Psychiatry is one of the least competitive residencies so you shouldn't face any big hurdles matching.

 

[MossPoh]

Last stat sheet I saw showed Psych having the lowest average board scores of all specialities. Things might've changed, but yes it is very possible. DOs are pretty strong in psych and get into very nice osteopathic and allopathic residencies. Actually, from the people I talk to, psych seems to be one of the least DO biased specialities around. Small sample size, so don't hold it for much.

 

[jp104]

About 65% of DOs go into primary care, so about 35% specialize. Psychiatry is one of the least competitive residencies so you shouldn't face any big hurdles matching.

This statistic may be misleading. Since that's the AOA website, I suspect they may only be tracking students who went through the DO match. Considering ~50% go through the allo match the numbers may be slightly off.

It may be more accurate for the OP to go through specific school match lists and see how many students went into non-primary care fields or more specifically psychiatry.

 

[spicedmanna]

Psych isn't a very competitive specialty at all. I think you shouldn't have any barriers as a DO or MD, if you want to pursue that field. Actually, it's a field that is in need of more physicians.

On a separate note, my school has been having a series of lectures lately where the lecturers (mostly non-primary care specialists) are assuming that their audience (our class) is going to be predominately primary care physicians, as in, "as primary care physicians, this is what you'll need to know." It's true, in my case, that I am likely going into IM, but I think it's a big leap to make that assumption and already addressing us as such, especially given current specialization trends. I mean, at my school, I believe more people actually specialize in non-primary care fields than primary care ones. For some reason, I felt sort of talked down to... There's nothing wrong with primary care. I mean, I'm more than likely going to be a primary care doc, but I find that somehow addressing all of us (and we are a large class with a variety of specialization plans) as if we are all going into primary care to be sort of, I don't know...insulting.