med/psych programs

Started by singer
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Hi:

You might want to be more specific in your question. Wonderer was also wondering about doing med-psych since it is nice to have a more solid background in medicine when treating psych patients. Most psych programs don't give much general medicine training - except maybe for Columbia which I've heard has a really solid medicine intern year (but I was told that some years ago so maybe its changed).

M-
 
sorry about being so vague...

currently, i'm thinking that a solid medicine background would be very useful for anyone working in psych. i just wondered if others felt the same.

despite my interest in med/psych, i have been advised to select one or the other, but not both. has anyone received similar advice?
 
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Hi:

Why did someone recommend one or the other? I know there are some good programs that double board you. Having a strong medicine background is a great benefit but I really think you can get at least a modestly basic background by doing an medical internship and then going onto a PGY2 psych spot. A lot of psych internships only give you 3 months of medicine where a medicine internship will give you like 5 months plus a month or two of ICU. If you really want to manage a lot of IM issues in your practice then a double-board program is probably for you.


M-
 
when i was told to choose one or the other, my professor asked why i would want to be mediocre at two things rather than excel at one. i'm not sure i agree with that...

are you interested in med/psych? or are you just planning to get your medicine through a solid internship?
 
how i see it is that if you want to work in an underserved area then you should definitely do med/psych because there is a huge need

OR if you want to eventually do a C/L fellowship or work primarily in an inpt setting where you're the doc on an inpt unit, then you really should do med/psych

otherwise, i think a several months of medicine during your psych intern year should really suffice--a lot of places require more than the 4 months needed for board eligibility ie yale, harvard require 6
mgh reqires 8
there''s a columbia track where you do up to 10months of medicine


hope this helps
 
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