MD/PhD Programs

[ironicallyunsur]

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I'm pre-med and have recently started thinking about what I want to do. It's come down to this: I want to be a practicing psychologist as well as a physician. I know that doesn't make too much sense, but I'm passionate about both. I've been spending some time looking at MD/PhD programs, and it seems that only a few schools offer that option, because many of the PhD parts are centered on the hard sciences. If I manage to get into a MD/PhD program that offers psychology, will I be able to be a practicing counselor and a physician?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[witness23]

theres a thread about social sciences in the physician scientist thread. read into it.

why not just go into psychiatry

 

[Doctura]

I was thinking about doing an MD/PhD in something non-science (ethics and medical humanities), and you need to give careful consideration to what you plan to do with both degrees, and if what you want to do is even possible. If you are curious about MD/PhD programs, there is a good book called "The Complete Guide to the MD/PhD Degree" by Rosner and Nayak available on Amazon that I found to be enlightening. Perhaps if you were to complete a residence in psychiatry this would make sense. I would have a hard time imagining that you will have time for a full time career as both a physician and a psychologist. Time is a limited resource.

 

[TexasPhysician]

theres a thread about social sciences in the physician scientist thread. read into it.

why not just go into psychiatry

exactly what I was thinking......

 

[mezmerized7]

exactly what I was thinking......

I agree with the posts about doing psychiatry, unless you want to be say a family med doc and a counselor. Maybe it will be better doing two residency programs (and there are even combined family med/psychiatry residency programs). However depending on available programs, MD/PhD might be a good way to go if they are paying your way...just giving you a few options to consider.

 

[AdmiralChz]

You can be a psychiatrist that also doubles as a therapist. No MD/PhD needed for that one....

 

[Neuronix]

MD/PhD degree programs are mostly intended to produce basic science researchers. There are some options available for social science researchers, though they are rarer and more competitive.

What you are proposing makes absolutely zero sense. If you want to be a psychiatrist, you can practice as much psychotherapy, analysis, and counseling as you like in addition to prescribing psychiatric medications. There is no reason to obtain two closely related clinical degrees and this is not at all what the MD/PhD is meant to do. If you do want to perform research in psychiatry, you could make an argument for PhDs in any of the non-clinical psychology branches, though your path of least resistance will be a PhD in Neuroscience.

It sounds like you don't have a good sense of what the options are for a psychiatrist. You should probably talk to some more of them.