Good reading material between now and residency?

[serimeri]

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So I did a little informal meet and greet with some of the residents and it seems like most of my co-interns are well seasoned mental health professionals and were even attending level at their home countries, I don't even know why they have to go through 4 more years of residency. However, I am the only one who will be fresh out of medical school, and I suspect I will probably be quite behind compared to these guys. I was wondering if any PD's or Attendings can chime in on things I can do before I start to make things smooth in order to transition into residency?

Any books I can read or articles, podcasts? I'm really nervous because I have been googling some of these guys and it appears they have several publications in Psychiatry and were actively involved in research. Truth be told, I didn't pull the trigger for Psych until halfway through the application cycle. I was originally going to do IM/FP.

Thanks a bunch in advance.

 

[jaymon]

I'd like to know this too. I asked a resident I knew if there was anything I should study beforehand and he told me just to chill because I'll do plenty of studying once I'm a resident. I just don't want to go in looking dumb lol.

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

There are all kinds of commercial suggestions about review courses and “ideal curriculum”, but I would suggest that you are not in the position of “reviewing”. If you haven’t read the major text book, that is where you should start. I’m always amazed at how many trainees launch into the latest cutting edge journal articles, but they haven’t studies much of the basics. The vast majority of programs would follow either Kaplan and Sadock, or the APA Textbook of Psychiatry. Neither of these is probably adequate in the psychopharm arena, although both have a chapter on it. I would say get the synopsis or the full two volume K&S and a pharm book and you will be starting off fairly well. The handbook is too simplified, and the APA text only comes in one length. If you can get a good start on this, you will not be embarrassed by your knowledge deficits as compared to your classmates. Good luck.

 

[Psychobabbling]

Medical training is just learning to be comfortable not having all of the answers to everything. First you feel like you're supposed to know everything (first 2 years of school). Clinical rotations hit and you feel like you don't know enough to apply basic sciences to clinical knowledge. Residency hits and you feel the weight of both. Throughout all of this, you get accustomed to not knowing everything and managing. As you go through Residency, you will slowly realize you know somethings and know nothing of a lot of other things. You slowly add on to your knowledge base. You do this throughout your entire career.

You are not going to learn how to be a master interviewer by reading a book. You are not going to learn how to manage a person with Borderline Personality Disorder through a cookbook approach. Even after reading and seeing patients, you're still not going to get it all right. What will happen though, is that you will slowly gain more confidence, and knowledge, and experience, in various areas, and your feelings of competency and autonomy will grow. Remember that, because along the way, you will have critics (You didn't do what!?!? You forgot to order what!?!? etc). Others will have more empathy, having been there before, and guide you through. Regardless, don't add on to the criticism by getting down on yourself.

In the interim before psych residency, I would just enjoy life. Because residency, even though Psychiatry is chill, can be draining, emotionally, mentally.

If you wanted to read anything, I would recommend: The Psychiatric Interview, by Daniel Carlat

And when I say read, I mean, in between sky diving/scuba diving/hiking/laying around playing video games/drinking with your buddies....pick it up and read 2-4 pages at a time, just to slowly get your feet wet. It's a good starting point, and one you can turn to during your training.

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And finally, the reason why residents always tell incoming interns to "just relax" is we're just really telling you what we wish we could be doing right now. 🙂

 

[OldPsychDoc]

Amazon product ASIN 0615455646Read it annually.

 

[serimeri]

Thanks so much guys. I think I need a breather. I've been working hard this year as I didn't know I was going into Psych until later so I think that also contributed to my perceived knowledge debt.

I feel fortunate that I will be with such accomplished individuals as co-residents, but at the same time I feel like I will be under scrutiny from the PD as he will wonder what the hell am I doing when I put in orders for antipsychotics. One of my co-residents has had 7 publications on neuro and psych subjects, and I have zero. So you can imagine how I feel.

But I am going to hit the ground running harder than I ever have July 1st.

 

[HarryMTieboutMD]

Read the House of God. Again. I read Kauffman's because I started on neuro, which was really helpful (but I'm neurotic and can't sit still without something academic to do). Anyway, I have said this on other posts, but the main thing for intern year is to KEEP IT SIMPLE. Here's what I use as an intern, which works well for me
Fish's Psychopathology: GREAT for descriptive psychopathology and for clearly defining confusing/misused MSE terms. Well referenced and features lots of Jaspers and Schneider
Stahl's: Prescriber's guide and Essential Psychopharm. I do not try to read it straight through; I use both books for reference and learning when I order a drug
DSM V pocket version
Goodwin and Guze's Psychiatric Diagnosis- Really readable text that outlines the basics of the major psychopathologies. Latest edition is written in the DSM 4 era but still very helpful
Neuroscience of Clinical Psychiatry (George and Higgins) really readable text about neuroscience of clinical psychiatry (again I am neurotic and always want to be thinking about underlying neurobiology).
Finally, and these are NOT simple, but in my estimation the pinnacle of descriptive psychopathology- Kraeplin's Dementia Praecox and Manic Depressive Insanity. I think these two texts, though at times cumbersome to read, have helped me understand my patients more than anything else. Highly recommend.

And for things you don't know- go to pubmed. Splik posted a list of good papers for reference. Or your hospital's library. Learning how to read the literature and find relevant things is a doctor skill.

 

[Shikima]

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