Good reads for a med student interested in psychiatry?

[pathologyDO]

I know, I know... the DSM might be interesting to pick up and read. But given the ubiquitous disagreement with the DSM and its criteria around these forums, I think I will steer clear.

What else is there?

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[birchswing]

There are pamphlets in the waiting room.

 

[Akecheta]

I know, I know... the DSM might be interesting to pick up and read. But given the ubiquitous disagreement with the DSM and its criteria around these forums, I think I will steer clear.

What else is there?

I

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

www.thelastpsychiastrist.com : His blog can be polarizing, but I think it's usually a pretty good read. It's been a few years since I've followed it with any regularity, but it will provide you with a different perspective than most of the stuff on here or in Op-Ed pieces.

http://thecarlatreport.com : TCPR does solid work. They offer both free and paid articles. As a student/pre-med, the free stuff should be sufficient; the website will denote which articles are free.

Getting library/university access to the various psychiatry journals would be helpful. Any local library or university should offer free access w. a library or student ID card. The Op-Ed pieces will give you more of a flavor of what is going on in the field, as the articles are probably more technical in nature.

*edit to add*

Take all of these w. a grain of salt, as I am neither a psychiatrist nor work w. psych populations anymore...so my view of what is interesting may be different than someone practicing "in the trenches" every day. If you are willing to poke around SDN for information....some of the long-standing members in this forum have posted more useful and insightful information than probably any other place that is freely available to interested students. You can use the "Search This Forum" function in the top right hand corner of the Psychiatry Forum's front page.

I'd recommend looking up some of the threads/posts by Anasazi23 (former mod) and OldPsychDoc (former mod), as both have contributed a great deal to the forum. whopper and pingouin (current mod) have also posted some very useful stuff.

 

[notdeadyet]

the DSM might be interesting to pick up and read. But given the ubiquitous disagreement with the DSM and its criteria around these forums, I think I will steer clear.

If you're a medical student, I'd recommend the opposite.

You need to learn the DSM and how it categorizes mental illness (as it's the most used, like it or not) before you toss it out or toss out parts of it.

It's a bit like jazz. Although it sounds all over the place, every jazz guitarist knows their chords and scales. Jumping straight to the improv without getting the foundation first is just flailing on the strings. And it'll show.

 

[billypilgrim37]

And there really isn't such disagreement in psychiatry as here. There are loud people being loud. That's the nature of the internet.

 

[okokok]

"Far From the Tree" by Andrew Sullivan has a chapter on schizophrenia that is extremely interesting. It's nonfiction narrative, so it's an easy read, but very worthwhile.

 

[Daedra22]

I've enjoyed reading books by psychiatrists about their work, if only because they kept me motivated during some of the more arduous parts of med school. "Danger to Self" by Paul Linde, "Weekends at Bellevue" by Julie Holland, and "The Naked Lady Who Stood on Her Head" by Gary Small were all very good reads. Recently I've been reading "Me, Myself and Them" by Kurt Snyder, a patient with schizophrenia. Like the other books I mentioned it is not a scientific text by any means, however it's interesting to read about schizophrenia from the perspective of someone who has it.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Yalom has some excellent stuff about therapy and development as a clinician.

 

[vistaril]

And there really isn't such disagreement in psychiatry as here. There are loud people being loud. That's the nature of the internet.

but there is a big difference between disagreement and indifference, which I think is becoming more and more common amongst psychiatrists regarding the dsm.

 

[vistaril]

If you're a medical student, I'd recommend the opposite.

You need to learn the DSM and how it categorizes mental illness (as it's the most used, like it or not) before you toss it out or toss out parts of it.

It's a bit like jazz. Although it sounds all over the place, every jazz guitarist knows their chords and scales. Jumping straight to the improv without getting the foundation first is just flailing on the strings. And it'll show.

the foundation of psychiatry?psychology has nothing to do with the dsm.....I mean it's not a bad idea to read it I guess, but they would probably get more from reading other things imo

 

[romanticscience]

Perspectives of Psychiatry - Paul McHugh, MD

 

[pathologyDO]

Thank you for the suggestions.

Regarding the DSM... since I will be class of 2017, should I be reading into the DSM IV or DSM V for testing purposes in the future?

 

[OldPsychDoc]

This guy. This post especially, but everything else he says, too.

 

[pathologyDO]

This guy. This post especially, but everything else he says, too.

 

[vistaril]

This guy. This post especially, but everything else he says, too.

I don't disagree with his entire article, but I found this comment of his perplexing:If psychiatry really was the application of ineffective treatments to persons with diagnoses that lack validity - I am sure I would have become an Internist or a Neurosurgeon about 25 years ago

Huh? That makes no sense. That because he picked it a long time ago, then it must be good?