how to know a program's focus?
- Thread starter usmletoo
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Generally, word of mouth is your only hope.
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Word of mouth from under the table. Any program over the table is going to try to sell themselves to you.
If you are interested in research, I did see a website (years ago) rating psychiatry residencies based on how much research dollars they were using. IMHO that's a poor indicator to rate a program as a whole (which that site was attempting to do--rate the program simply on research, but titled it in a manner where more money spent on research made it a "top" program in general--not just research).
If you know what type of research you want to do, that may further help you pick which program you want. Some programs are further along the cutting edge in research vs others. E.g. for CBT research, U. Penn is doing research with the Beck Institute. Columbia is doing research on Omega 3 fatty acids and mental disorders etc.
If you are interested in research, I did see a website (years ago) rating psychiatry residencies based on how much research dollars they were using. IMHO that's a poor indicator to rate a program as a whole (which that site was attempting to do--rate the program simply on research, but titled it in a manner where more money spent on research made it a "top" program in general--not just research).
If you know what type of research you want to do, that may further help you pick which program you want. Some programs are further along the cutting edge in research vs others. E.g. for CBT research, U. Penn is doing research with the Beck Institute. Columbia is doing research on Omega 3 fatty acids and mental disorders etc.
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this is huge. No one hands you a pot of gold and says 'go research what you want'. You have to figure out who's researching what where and go for it. There are places I interviewed at that have fantastic research support but weren't doing any research I was interested in. So they actually ended up further down the list than programs with minimal research support.
Second, don't confuse 'department does lots of research' with 'program has lots of research support'. There's a big difference. There are prestigious departments that do a ton of research, coupled with highly regarded training programs that work you hard and offer no protected research time, etc. These aren't great for the researchy. When you are working on the clinical stuff 80h a week, it is hard to find extra time to do your research in.
Last, psychotherapy IS biological. The brain is a biological entity, thoughts, moods, and behavior originate in the brain. Ergo, therapies that work through modification of thought, perception, memory, and behavior are biological in nature.
This is like arguing that oxycodone as a treatment for pain is 'biological' but rehabilitation exercise is not.
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Very good point MoM.
And of course some very big researchers may be present at a program, but have little interest in instructing a resident or adding a resident to his/her research. I know of some specific doctors that were considered brilliant and the top in the field, but had little interest or ability to teach. Some were forced to teach by their program, were very unhappy about it and expressed their frustration by taking it out on their students (e.g. an extremely high failure rate cited as unfair by the person's colleagues, pimping, outright admission from the person that they didn't want to have students involved.....)
And of course some very big researchers may be present at a program, but have little interest in instructing a resident or adding a resident to his/her research. I know of some specific doctors that were considered brilliant and the top in the field, but had little interest or ability to teach. Some were forced to teach by their program, were very unhappy about it and expressed their frustration by taking it out on their students (e.g. an extremely high failure rate cited as unfair by the person's colleagues, pimping, outright admission from the person that they didn't want to have students involved.....)
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