Military Psychiatry?

[DD214_DOC]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Any comments or insight into how psychiatry works in the Military? I'm not really thinking of any subspecialty in particular, but the more I think about it I feel more drawn to psychology/psychiatry than I do what I had intended to pursue (surgery). There are several factors contributing to my interest that I really can't get into publicly, although I wish I could disclose that info on a personal statement.

Anyways, is there a difference across each service as to how psychiatry is practiced? Do military psychiatrists basically just do evals and that's it? How deployable is psych?

Any idea how clinical psychology relates to these? I'm considering this route if I'm not admitted to med school.

Thanks ahead of time. 😀

 

[r90t]

I know that clinical psychologists have been deployed on west coast carriers with a resulted drop in med evacs. They had to give up one ship's company officer billets to add on the staff corps position. Not sure if they are still doing it or not.

They have also rapidly deployed both psychiatrists/psychologists to the scene of incidents where PTSD may be high, such as when the Cole got hit.

 

[R-Me-Doc]

Psychiatry is highly deployable in the Army (combat stress and all that . . .)

When not deployed you will do basic general psychiatry (depression, anxiety, PTSD, psychosis, etc) just like a regular psychiatrist. However, you will also do A LOT of medical evaluation boards (i.e., medical discharges for psychiatric problems) and be called upon to evaluate for malingering/conversion disorder quite a bit. This will be especially true if you are at a post with a large basic training population. Unless you are at a major med center (Walter Reed, BAMC, etc), you probably won't do much acute inpatient psych.

I don't know about the demand for all psych subspecialties, but I do know that the Army, like the civilian world in general, is really sucking for child psych.

 

[thenavysurgeon]

i've got a med school buddy that is in psych, and in the desert in Iraq...he was recently interviewed by a newspaper out there...sounds horrendous.