Is this a viable topic in research?

[Macromind101]

I was wondering if there is an area in neurological research that deals specifically with social and anxiety disorders (like autism, ADD/ADHD, social anxiety disorder, etc.) at the molecular & cellular level. And if there is, I was wondering if I would be qualified for that research with an MD-PhD dual degree while specializing in neurosurgery.

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[VitaminVater]

I was wondering if there is an area in neurological research that deals specifically with social and anxiety disorders (like autism, ADD/ADHD, social anxiety disorder, etc.) at the molecular & cellular level. And if there is, I was wondering if I would be qualified for that research with an MD-PhD dual degree while specializing in neurosurgery.

At my last interview I was talking with a PI that studies therapeutics for ion channels and the potential they have for treating "overactivity" disorders like the ones you listed.

I think any research field has potential to be applied to a specific disease, but what you really have to think about is at what level do you want to do research (basic->translational->clinical) and once you decide that ask yourself questions like "Do I want to test the effectiveness of treatments?" "Do I want to discover the pathways involved in X disease?", many physician-scientists will say they study X disease but when you inquire further you see its even more specialized like "I study the proteins that may be involved with this disease and pathways/interactions they mediate"

 

[dl2dp2]

I was wondering if there is an area in neurological research that deals specifically with social and anxiety disorders (like autism, ADD/ADHD, social anxiety disorder, etc.) at the molecular & cellular level. And if there is, I was wondering if I would be qualified for that research with an MD-PhD dual degree while specializing in neurosurgery.

Why would you do neurosurgery??? These disorders are treated by a psychiatrist.

 

[pluto101]

I was wondering if there is an area in neurological research that deals specifically with social and anxiety disorders (like autism, ADD/ADHD, social anxiety disorder, etc.) at the molecular & cellular level. And if there is, I was wondering if I would be qualified for that research with an MD-PhD dual degree while specializing in neurosurgery.

I would think specializing in Neurology or Psychiatry would be a more obvious choice, but I'd imagine neurosurgery wouldn't be a hindrance. You would probably have less time to do research as a neurosurgeon, though.

And yes, there are areas of research that deal with these topics. Who do you think develops psychiatric drugs? Search PubMed for anxiety and serotonin, or transporter. Heck, this was the first result I came up with when searching Google for "anxiety and molecular":

http://www-ulpmed.u-strasbg.fr/mede...rs/module_MO15/troubles_lies_anxiete_GB_1.pdf

Not the greatest paper, but a decent review.

 

[bd4727]

Yes this is a huge area of basic science research (and very well funded currently, as compared to many other fields). Other clinical fields that people who have labs in this area are often in: pathology, pediatrics, neurology, genetics. Neurosurgeons who have research programs tend to be more involved in either brain cancer molecular stuff or more hardcore 'neurological' disorders (vs psychiatric disorders) like Parkinson's etc, but I imagine it would still be just as doable. Human brain tissue for research of the disorders you described is severely limited, so as a neurosurgeon you could potential be at advantage in this regard.