MD & DO I love Neurology, but...

[culturenmusic03]

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Hey everyone! I'm an MS2 at the tail-end of my preclinical studies and have been thinking more about residency. I was a neuroscience undergrad and have been primarily considering neurology as my specialty of interest. I've enjoyed the preclinical neuro the most, but have some reservations about the field that I heard about.

- Neuro has some really cool cases, but often long-term treatments that cannot actually cure someone. (I think I might like some more acute-care stuff where I can actually do something in the acute term)
- Neuro is mainly outpatient and you can't do may hands-on procedures other than LPs, maybe botox.

For subspecialties, I'm considering Neuro-onc, Neuro-IR, and Stroke as these seem the most interesting so far. I'm also considering Child Neurology but not quite sure how it differs from Adult Neurology in terms of the types of cases, types of help you can offer, etc. I considered neurosurgery, but the lifestyle post-residency is not really for me. I do like the acuteness and how much change you can make for someone. Obviously still waiting to know more until clinicals, but any advice on any of my worries?

 

[Tenk]

Outside of mild infections, almost all non-surgical specialties don’t really cure people. You don’t cure diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, heart disease, auto-immune disease, psychiatric disease, etc. You manage it.

Can you “cure” some of those things with hard work, diet and/or exercise? Absolutely, but 99% of the population doesn’t.

When choosing a specialty: life style > money > day to day work. Everything is new and exciting as a student but the surgeons first appendectomy is far more thrilling than the 756th that they got called about at 3 am.

Neurology has a decent life style and decent money, so if you enjoy the medicine, just try to come to terms with managing disease instead of curing it. Good luck.

 

[Dral]

I hadn't really considered things as Tenk mentioned, but it's generally true. There are of course exceptions, but procedures tend to cure (not always) vs a lof of what we do for other things is management. However, management can fail, do a great job of making someone relatively disease free, and everything in between - but not necessarily cure someone of disease.

 

[culturenmusic03]

Thanks for the replies, this definitely is a great perspective to think about even as I consider Child Neurology