Grass is Greener?

[drpsychmd]

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Does anyone ever have doubts about having gone into psychiatry vs. another speciality? It seems like there is so much trial-error - try this med, try that med, augment this med, augment that med - and sometimes despite all this effort, Pts. sometimes find minimal relief. Sometimes I wonder how it would have been in a specialty where things were more cut & dry. Am I alone in this feeling?

 

[HMSPSYCH]

Does anyone ever have doubts about having gone into psychiatry vs. another speciality? It seems like there is so much trial-error - try this med, try that med, augment this med, augment that med - and sometimes despite all this effort, Pts. sometimes find minimal relief. Sometimes I wonder how it would have been in a specialty where things were more cut & dry. Am I alone in this feeling?

No, i can't imagine doing anything else. There are treatment resistant patients in every medical specialty but i would agree this is more common in psychiatry. T

There are several evidence based algorithms psychiatry rely on for treatment and it is not so random as it appears. But I am sure there are psychiatrists out there, just like GIs, cardios, endo. , who treat their patients via the trial and error approach.

 

[whopper]

Despite that this happens in our field, at least for me, that problem never made me wonder if the grass was greener in other fields.

Every field has something about it that can be unappealing to someone. Some of the pros and cons make some of the fields better for certain personality types.

 

[Sneezing]

Despite that this happens in our field, at least for me, that problem never made me wonder if the grass was greener in other fields.

Every field has something about it that can be unappealing to someone. Some of the pros and cons make some of the fields better for certain personality types.

I am thankful for the fact that there is some more 'trial and error' in psychiatry. The thought of it being as algorithmic as cardio would make me want to shoot myself. Chest pain? -->Echo + stress test and/or cath. Or even in EM, reflexively ordering a CT and any possible lab remotely related to the complaint topped off with a mg of dilaudid.

I'm excited to know that in order to do our specialty and do it well we have to think. The sad thing is it can also hide less than desirable prescribers more than other specialties.

If you really want to work on making psych less trial and error do some gene research on patient medication response.

 

[Suedehead]

Does anyone ever have doubts about having gone into psychiatry vs. another speciality? It seems like there is so much trial-error - try this med, try that med, augment this med, augment that med - and sometimes despite all this effort, Pts. sometimes find minimal relief. Sometimes I wonder how it would have been in a specialty where things were more cut & dry. Am I alone in this feeling?

Ha! I think many of us are addicted to 'grass is greener' thinking. I know I've been very prone to it. I dig psych and all but..... what kind of dentist or humanities professor would I have made? hmmmm

That kind of thinking can make things hard, lonely. Part of growing up might mean knowing when to jump ship and when to really really commit. Hard, man... growth's not easy.

I've been reading some Jung, can you tell?