Neurology?

[ringo643]

Everyone talks about how nearly impossible it is to match in neurosurgery. What about neurology? Is it equally difficult? Is it a residency program of its own, or a subspecialty of med? I was just wondering what some med students thought of this. (I'll be starting in the fall) Thanks.

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[Becket]

Unlike neurosurgery, neurology is very easy to match into. It does have its own 3 year residency, which requires a preliminary year of internal medicine training. Subspecialty fellowships are available after residency is completed.

 

[scully]

Why is neurology so easy to get into? I have noticed that not many people from the schools which I have been considering match in this specialty. Neuroscience seems so interesting--is there something undesirable about neurology?

 

[together]

Hi All:

As a student fascinated by the human brain and clinical medicine, I am very interested in pursuing neurology/psychiatry. The reason that neurology seems to be lacking in popularity (according to what residents and practicing MDs and DOs have told me) is (1) neurologic treatments are not in any way standardized (yet?), and (2) the pay doesn't come close to what surgeons haul in.

Despite these allegations, I have faith in neurology and am excited about the opportunity to pursue a career in this field.

Together

 

[maraliason]

I think the biggest reason people don't enter neurology is because of the type of patients one sees as a practicing neurologist. Keep in mind, with a lot of specialties, the results are positive, a lot can be done for a patient and the course of treatment may be short. However in neurology, many patients have progressive diseases such as ALS, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Multiple Sclerosis etc. In all of these cases the treatments usually work to slow down the progression at best, not cure the disease. I think future advancement will definitely affect this field, but for now, there isn't much a physician can do - diagnose and try some treatments. I think the field of neuroscience is one of the most interesting, but the immediate gratification of helping someone may not be as high in neurology as other fields.

 

[GeoLeoX]

The way I look at it is that neurology is similar to psychiatry. Of course I am not the only one with this idea. But since more people know something about psych it's easier to visualize neurology in comparison. A good bit of a neurologist's time is spent in diagnosing and counseling patients about their disease. Many people come to the neurologist after trying everything else. For example, headaches are a big part of the neurologist's practice. Another example, multiple sclerosis is frequently misdiagnosed until a patient comes to the neurologist.

I, too, am excited about the prospects for the future of neurology. As a hopeful MD/PhD I think that it will be a good fit for me.

ps. Check out the website for the American Academy of Neurology (www.aan.com) and consider becoming a student member (it's free).

Geo

 

[kimberlicox]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by maraliason:
I think the biggest reason people don't enter neurology is because of the type of patients one sees as a practicing neurologist. •

Yep, when I did research for a neurologist this was *his* take on the issue. He felt that most of his classmates weren't attracted to neurology because of the stress over dealing with these horrible diseases. Its one thing to tell a patient they have DM and they *may* suffer the neurovascular complications of it; its quite another to diagnose someone with Huntington's or PSP, ALS, etc. and tell them they *will* suffer certain consequences and they *will* die in a relatively short period of time.

Maybe that's why some neurologists like to focus on HA or epilepsy; seemingly less difficult to deal with.

And for all the difficulties you have to deal with, you are not paid as well as other specialties. For some, this is an issue.

Finally, lots of people just prefer to forget all those neural pathways once they leave school!