Can psychiatrists do purely psychology focused research and medical research?

[Midoritori2018]

As a psychiatrist can I conduct purely psychology based research and at other times focus on research in the medical research related to psychology?

Also, can one see patients and also conduct research? Or do we have to pick one or the other?

Thanks so much

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[Engrailed]

You can always do research even as an MD (regardless of the specialty). From what Ive heard, MD research skills (vs MD PhD) aren't as on par with true PhD researchers but yes its definitely possible.
I know MDs who decided to quit clinical work altogether and just do research as well (in a bench lab setting)

 

[allantois]

It sounds like you want to be a research psychologist

 

[Midoritori2018]

It sounds like you want to be a research psychologist

Im so torn. I love both psychology research but I also would love to research new novel treatments for mental illness. But I’m not sure if I can do both. Hard to pick

 

[Medic741]

Im so torn. I love both psychology research but I also would love to research new novel treatments for mental illness. But I’m not sure if I can do both. Hard to pick

Yup! You won’t learn the same research methods or weird stats involved in the social sciences, but if you pick up a textbook it’s nkt that hard to figure out. I ended up doing some psych research in medical school by approaching some of our PhD clinical psychology teaching staff. Psych is what you make of it and the opportunities are there and very open ended

 

[Midoritori2018]

That’s wonderful to know! Thanks

 

[Moko]

As a physician, you pretty much get to do whatever you want with your time, whether it be research, teaching, clinical work, administration, consulting, etc or some combination of these.

If your goal is predominantly research and/or psychology though, I do wonder if you would be better served through other degrees such as a PhD

 

[NeuroPsychosis]

If your main interest is research; going for an MD may not be the ideal thing to do. MD is a clinical degree and therefore you may recieve poor research training. Sure thing you may be trained to be a good "consumer" of research, but the program does not ensure you become a good "producer" of research. That model of training is more connected to a PhD program. Now, to explore your options, there are tons of PhDs in the biomedicine field that focuses on medical-psych research. Some of the top examples are UCSF or Stanford or UCLA. Through those, you can land a job as a researcher at their med centers and teach medical courses. However, if you particularly want to do clinicals as well, then your second option may be to land an MD-PhD joint program. Hope that helps!