Ect

[rxg16]

Hey, I was wondering how lucrative ect is, and if there are any psychiatrists out there who mainly do ect (as opposed to seeing patients). I'm assuming that most residencies offer ect training in 3rd and 4th years, are there any which do not offer it at all?

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[ckent]

ect is actually one of the most lucrative parts of psychiatry, as it's the only "procedure" available for them to do. At my school, there is one guy who mainly does ect's all day. It seems pretty easy to do too, since all you have to do is hook up the electrodes and press the button to shock the guy.

 

[rxg16]

But it almost seems too good to be true, if all you have to do is ect's all day and make 180K then why don't more people do it?

 

[Thewonderer]

Originally posted by rxg16
But it almost seems too good to be true, if all you have to do is ect's all day and make 180K then why don't more people do it?

Because not everything that one does depends on money.

People go into psychiatry to get to knkow their patients at a deeper emotional level than other medical practitioners; they do not go into psychiatry to push buttons. People also don't go into psych due to the money because psych is the lowest paid specialty out there, even lower than neurologists who at least get to do EEG.

similary, child psych is really hot right now. There is shortage everywhere and child psychiatrists get to dictate how much they charge and everything needs to be out of pocket. You can work 50 hrs a week and make over $200k in almost every market in the US. However, I did some child psych clinic "shadowing" and it simply does not excite me. You cannot establish a bond with a child psychologically in the same way as you can with an adult. In child psych, you also need to know what is the norm developmentally at every age group! That's too much for me.

 

[rxg16]

Sorry to sound so cynical; I guess that I've been hanging out w/ too many future anesthesiologists. Still, the prospect of pushing a button and seeing your bank account magically increase isn't that bad.

 

[Asher]

Another thing to consider is that some hospitals don't have as good of a "set up" for ECT services. They may only have the dedicated time or space to perform ECT once or twice a week whereas at other facilities it can be performed more frequently.

 

[Thewonderer]

Originally posted by rxg16
Sorry to sound so cynical; I guess that I've been hanging out w/ too many future anesthesiologists. Still, the prospect of pushing a button and seeing your bank account magically increase isn't that bad.

Anesthesia is definitely a very very ludicrative field right now. There is nothing with placing lots of weight on money. But psych would be the wrong field to go into (although some people argue that $130k is a lot of money regardless while other consider that to be much less than what a cardiologist or anesthesiologist makes).

 

[rxg16]

130K for the amount of work that SOME psychiatrists do (during training and after) is a lot of money.