How much psychiatry can child neurologists practice?

[pineapples15]

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I am a 4th year medical student struggling to decide between a career in child neurology and child psychiatry. My ideal career would involve both - e.g., treating epilepsy, headaches, MS, TBI, etc. and their psychiatric comorbidities, especially depression, anxiety, cognitive impairment, ADHD, and ASD. I don't want to just punt these issues to the psychiatrist, as they are fundamentally just as interesting to me as the organic neurologic diseases. Unfortunately, there is no straightforward path to do both for children as there is for adults. Does anyone in either field know how much of my vision is possible after completing just a child neurology residency?

 

[hamstergang]

and their psychiatric comorbidities, especially depression, anxiety, cognitive impairment, ADHD, and ASD.

I'm a child/adolescent psychiatrist so while I can speak to some of this, I don't know what pediatric neurology training actually entails.

ADHD, ASD, learning disorders, and intellectual disabilities are all things I see some of the pediatric neurologists routinely managing. These conditions are rather shared by neurology, psychiatry, and neurodevelopmental pediatrics.

As for depression and anxiety, it's not out of the question for a pediatric neurologist to handle the basics. You likely wouldn't be as familiar with all the meds, you'd likely have 1 or 2 you get comfortable with, and you'd likely not know what to do for more difficult/complex cases. Given the dearth of child psychiatrists everywhere in this country, it's very much appreciated and helpful for other pediatric specialists to get comfortable managing more basic depression and anxiety.