MD/PhD-Psychology

[cort888]

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Ok I am having a major "mid college crisis". Heres the deal I came to Rutgers all geared up to be a psych/bio major. Well semester #1 I dropped the whole bio deal & picked up on Psych. I currently am 2nd yr & now have a departmental honors psych & most of my days are spent working in my research lab looking at eating disorders.Over the last 2 years I have come to the realization that I have a profound interest in both psychology & medicine. But the field of psychology im interested in is clinical health psychology, so basically looking at medical disease from a psychological aspect. My conflict is that I dont know if I want to be an MD or MD/PhD. I thought about PhD alone but I just cant see myself being happy in grad school & for the rest of my life just with the practice of psychology alone. And thinking about going to medicial school soon knowing I will never get the chance to take psychology courses & do the type of research Im doing now breaks my heart. I havent been able to find anyone to get good advice from since all the MD/PhD-psych are psychitrists and thats def not what I want to do. For instance my senior thesis is looking at bariatric surgery patients and the psychological aspects of pre/postop time periods. I want to be that surgeon & be able to conduct psych research behind it.So im not sure if the PhD in psych would be nessesary to do that? Also Im very concerned about the time committment to MD/PhD with a potentail surgical residency I dont want to be 50 when I complete my training.... Any advice?

 

[CheetahGirl]

My conflict is that I dont know if I want to be an MD or MD/PhD. I thought about PhD alone but I just cant see myself being happy in grad school & for the rest of my life just with the practice of psychology alone. And thinking about going to medicial school soon knowing I will never get the chance to take psychology courses & do the type of research Im doing now breaks my heart. I havent been able to find anyone to get good advice from since all the MD/PhD-psych are psychitrists and thats def not what I want to do.... Any advice?

Sounds like you're having a rough time, esp. considering that you feel you'll have to kiss a pure psychology focus good-bye (for the time being). Why don't you post this from a different angle on the MD forum? It sounds like you want advice on how to focus your research interests once you become an MD. Talk to your program director (whose lab you do work in about his/her career path). You could also search for advice from professors at Rutgers. Go to those people who are doing exactly what you want and ask them about the path they took. I've always known this to be the best way to get good advice. After all, imitation is the best form of flattery, and you could make some good friends (future recommenders) along the way.

For health psychology, if you don’t pursue a PhD and want a psych focus when it comes your medical research, you will need to partner with someone who specializes in a psychological field (like a psychiatrist or psychologist), but it’s not absolutely necessary. I know MDs who add psych measures to their research and publish their findings in major psych journals. However, those MDs almost always consult with psychologists. 😎

Most of us on this forum are working towards a future in psychology (PhD, PsyD, clinical, school, counseling, health, etc.). Advice here may be limited to those realms of focus.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Most MD / Ph.D. combos I see are not in psychology....as they tend to be in a hard science that can get a bunch of the courses waived via med school.

 

[doctoroxygen]

Most MD / Ph.D. combos I see are not in psychology....as they tend to be in a hard science that can get a bunch of the courses waived via med school.

This is true, but every MSTP program ostensibly also offers social science PhDs to complement the MD... it's just that they don't get many applicants who are interested in social science.

For what it sounds like you want to do, OP, a PhD in psych (or anything, really) would not be necessary. Many academic physicians consult with research psychologists when designing studies.

 

[Eruca]

So you want to be a surgeon AND a psychological (health psychology I gather) researcher? I would look around to see if you can find people who have this sort of career. I'm a touch dubious as both of the careers, by themselves, take many years of school & training - and they are not often found together.

If you can't find anyone who has gone that route, that may be informative for you. If you do, maybe you can pick their brain or ask them for some sort of unofficial mentorship/guidance.

You may find exactly what you want! -- But also be prepared to make some tough choices.

 

[Neuronix]

it's just that they don't get many applicants who are interested in social science.

This is a chicken and egg problem. There aren't many applicants who are interested in social science because MD/PhD programs have historically been for basic, bench science. They continue to emphasize that sort of research in their teaching, approach, and advertising. If the programs cared to have more social science MD/PhDs and advertised that fact, my guess is that many more applicants would come out of the woodwork. But it seems that the NIGMS and most medical schools and boards emphasize basic research for MD/PhDs. Still, even at my program where they are relatively friendly to alternative PhDs, many of the social science PhD programs put up ridiculous barriers to MD/PhD students, restricting the choices more than the MD/PhD program would like. Doing a MD/PhD is kind of a complicated mess when you get outside of the usual cell and molecular biology suspects, but not getting qualified applicants seems to be the least of these concerns.

as they tend to be in a hard science that can get a bunch of the courses waived via med school.

This is pretty institution/department specific. It's a goal, but a "bunch" is optimistic. Again, I don't see this as the major problem. I think the biggest problem with the op's post is that they are asking for two clinical degrees. They are asking to be both a surgeon AND a clinical psychologist at the same time. You could do surgery and that kind of research if you so choose (though it wouldn't be easy), but you don't need a PhD in clinical psychology to do it. In the other thread, I suggested maybe a 5 year program if the person is really focused on surgery.

If one really, really wanted, one could try to argue for a degree in social psychology, as this is a RESEARCH degree as opposed to a second CLINICAL degree for a second type of practice. It would require a lot of this kind of research as an undergrad and a near flawless record for the MD/PhD applicant otherwise, but I think it could be done.

This thread was cross posted and so I'm going to close this thread. SDN rules are that new threads can only be started in one forum at a time. Feel free to continue this discussion over there.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=598929