Psychiatry as a career and its various options

[DoctorPardi]

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I am new to the psych forum so excuse me if this has been discussed a million times. I notice that there is not much discussion of "is this specialty right for me?" type thing.

So I am interested to know what type of person fits well into the various kinds of psychiatry? I am starting MS-1 and have absolutely no clue as to what specialty I want to go into. I am interested in everything, so one might suggest I go into ER lol. I am sure third year will clear much of this up, but I would like to learn as much about the various specialties as possible before then.

In short who fits in psychiatry and what are the various types of psychiatry one can go into? I know this can be a pretty subjective question so answer it however you can, links to other threads or FAQs are of course appreciated.

Also if I am in the wrong posting this Ana or another mod feel free to close it 🙂 I am a moderator from the pre-med arena so I am not familiar with how the "Grown up" forums are organized lol.

Thanks in advance!
-DP

 

[Faebinder]

To qualify for psychiatry residency you must fullfill 3 of the following 3 requires for over 7 months period consequetively:

1) Constantly radiating happiness and sunshine.

2) You must be able to retaliate verbally at the other inferior specialties.

3) Have a secret identify which is a superhero.

4) You must diagnose at least one of your family members with a personality disorder.

5) Must be able to withstand blood alcohol level in the 400s.

6) You must be able to use the force when needing an extra criteria to satisfy the diagnoses requirement for someone with a mental illness.

7) Must know at least 2 Yoda quotes.


Psych is branched into General, Addiction, Child, Forensic, Geriatric, Neuropsychiatry, Psychosomatic (aka Consultation). You can also go into Sleep Medicine and Pain Medicine after Psychiatry. To summerize it, it's diseases of the nerves that effects behavior (as opposed to neurology which involves diseases of the nerves that involves function).

 

[Anasazi23]

I think you're right in the sense that it's a broad question.

Most importantly, however, is the fact that you have to be a type of person that can deal with a degree of uncertainty, and will sleep at night knowing that your clinical skills, upon which you rely to make a diagnosis, is enough. Except in relatively rare cases, there are no confirmatory tests which is different from virtually every other branch of medicine. Since medicine tends to attract so many OCPD types who reqire they hang their hats on something solid and tangible, you need to have an appreciation that the field is the study and treatment of brain dysfunction, manifested quite differently than any other organ.

 

[Shalom77]

7) Must know at least 2 Yoda quotes.

so that's why i'm not a psych resident. it all becomes clear.

(I never had the attention span to watch Star Wars with all my friends when I was a kid - I'd always be doing something else (often multiple something elses) while they watched.)

 

[DoctorPardi]

I think you're right in the sense that it's a broad question.

Most importantly, however, is the fact that you have to be a type of person that can deal with a degree of uncertainty, and will sleep at night knowing that your clinical skills, upon which you rely to make a diagnosis, is enough. Except in relatively rare cases, there are no confirmatory tests which is different from virtually every other branch of medicine. Since medicine tends to attract so many OCPD types who reqire they hang their hats on something solid and tangible, you need to have an appreciation that the field is the study and treatment of brain dysfunction, manifested quite differently than any other organ.

What percentage of psychiatrists do outpatient office work vs in patient work? Do most of them do a little of both?

 

[Anasazi23]

I can't say for sure, but I'd say that the large majority do outpatient work. Nearly every inpatient psychiatrist I know also has at least a small private practice.