Route to pain management, PM&R or neuro

[BlueElmo]

hey guys, I'm a M3 trying to decide what I want to do for residency, although I'm leaning towards Neurology or PM&R. I'm very interested in doing pain management down the road, and was wondering what is the best speciality to choose from?
Should I choose PM&R or anesthesia, or do pain fellowships also take neurology residents?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[bedrock]

do a search of the forum. This has been discussed 100 times.

 

[freddydpt]

My take is that you should do what you love. Residency is multiple years. Love those years! I knew I wanted pain from the beginning, but I didn't see my self in the primary four specialties. I took a risk and went into radiology (which I love!), never regretted it and getting great interviews for pain fellowship.

PM&R- inpatient rehab in all settings, MSK/sports/pain
vs.
Neuro- seizure management, acute neuro critical care/stroke, dementias, tics, migraines/pain

There is overlap in pain management, neuropathies, etc. but the residencies tend to have a different pace and feel. Talk to some of the residents in each field to get a more in depth feel of what they do and how they like it. Do acting internships in both (with mixed experiences of inpatient and outpatient) and see what you like.

Good luck!

 

[emd123]

do a search of the forum. This has been discussed 100 times.

1 million times, actually.

 

[emd123]

hey guys, I'm a M3 trying to decide what I want to do for residency, although I'm leaning towards Neurology or PM&R. I'm very interested in doing pain management down the road, and was wondering what is the best speciality to choose from?
Should I choose PM&R or anesthesia, or do pain fellowships also take neurology residents?

Okay. I'll make this easy for you. By ease of obtaining a fellowship:

Anesthesia>PMR>Neuro>>>>>anything else. In that order.

 

[BlueElmo]

Cool thanks a lot guys for the help.

 

[oreosandsake]

14k posts on sdn! wow...


you gotta do what you would want to spend 3 years to possibly the rest of your career doing. the question you ask is almost like asking, "i'm hungry. what is better. mexican or italian food?"

 

[Ducttape]

14k posts on sdn! wow...


you gotta do what you would want to spend 3 years to possibly the rest of your career doing. the question you ask is almost like asking, "i'm hungry. what is better. mexican or italian food?"

thats easy.

chinese

 

[BlueElmo]

14k posts on sdn! wow...


you gotta do what you would want to spend 3 years to possibly the rest of your career doing. the question you ask is almost like asking, "i'm hungry. what is better. mexican or italian food?"

yeah most of the posts were when I was a pre-med and just wasting time in the pre-med forum.
I would choose either mexican or italian but I fail to see the analogy?

 

[oreosandsake]

1 million times, actually.

Okay. I'll make this easy for you. By ease of obtaining a fellowship:

Anesthesia>PMR>Neuro>>>>>anything else. In that order.

yeah most of the posts were when I was a pre-med and just wasting time in the pre-med forum.
I would choose either mexican or italian but I fail to see the analogy?

you can spend 4 years in training to be an anesthesiologist, a physiatrist, a neurologist, a psychiatrist, or longer to become a radiologist, or less like an internist.

all of these can get you to pain medicine. But, the road there, and what you may end up doing for all 4 years is very different. you have to be happy with your choice. you should enjoy your base specialty. you should also enjoy it enough that if you do not end up liking pain, or are unable to get into a fellowship, you are happy.

simple concept: no matter what you eat, you will satisfy your hunger. But, I do not like italian food, just as I did not like the OR (anesthesiology).

the "best specialty" as you put it, should be the one you like. It would be a bad idea to choose a field purely because you are hoping to get into the subspecialty, but may not like the base field. you would be surprised as how your mindset may change over time.

originally, i really just wanted to post commenting on the 14k posts. the search function is really useful as well.