Psychiatry residency

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2 questions - How long is the residency for psychiatry, and is this a difficult residency to get?

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Hi:

Residency for general psych is usually 4 years. As to competitiveness - it depends up on where you want to go but in general psych isn't as difficult to get into as say radiology.

M-
 
I haven't actually started the interview process yet (still a 3rd yr student), but from what I understand it's one of the easier residencies to match into, on par with family practice, peds, and path. Hope this helps.
 
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Well, I just matched in Psych today...I got my first (and only ranked) choice. Psychiatry residents routinely told me to be careful what program you rank first because you're probably going to get it. They were right. In other words, like the previous post said, Psych isn't as competitive as Rads, Ortho, or Derm but may be as competitive as FP and some IM programs. USE THIS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE!!! Unlike other specialties, you as a prospective Psychiatry resident, are in control of your destiny because most programs would love to have you and there are plenty of spaces available.
 
Oh yeah...Residency is 4 years long. Your intern year you typically do 6 months of primary care (with 2 of those months being Inpatient or Consult Neurology...and the other 4 being a combo of Family, Int. Medicine, Peds, OBGYN(Yuck! avoid these programs like the plague) and ER). The remaining 3 1/2 years are all Psych. Fellowships in Forensics, Child/Adolescent, and Consult psych are typically 1 year.
 
medcat3 (or anyone who knows really)--how difficult is it to match at combined programs like med/psych and neuro/psych in particular. Obviously, every place varies, but how much more difficult are these programs to get into (if at all)? Thanks so much.
 
No, the combined Psych residencies are not difficult to get into and rountinely go unfilled. Why? Because once you get out of residency and are double boarded in, lets say, Family Practice and Psych...what kind of practice are you going to have? It seems admirable to combine FP/IM and psych but the doctors that I work with with double boards have had a terrible time defining their practice. One physician that I worked with is double-boarded in IM/Psych and he basically does the primary care for the mentally ill. He doesn't do any Psychiatry but finds satisfaction because the mentally ill are often discriminated against in regular primary care offices. I think that an illness like Fibromyalgia would definitely benefit from a FP/IM-Psych physician...but that's about it. I want to do Psychiatry, not primary care, and is why I chose a Psych only program. FP/IM-Psych combined residencies typically run 5 years. I've heard that UCSD has a great program. I personally do not see the benefit in doing a combined residency.

Neuro-Psych is somewhat of a different story. Neurologists and Psychiatrist that I speak to feel that the two fields will eventually meet up again in the future as we discover more about brain anatomy and how it relates to behavior. Some Neurologists believe so much in the combined future of the two that they are lobbying for the Neuro residents to spend time on the Psych wards during residency and for the Psych residents to get more than 2 months of inpatient Neuro experience. One Neuropsychiatrist (he works almost exclusively with Pain, and Alzheimers patients...awesome doc...his patients LOVE him) tried to convince me BIG TIME to go into my school's Neuro-Psych program so that I could be "grandfathered" into the specialty before it gets hot. The big downside to the Neuro-Psych combined programs: THE RESIDENCY IS 6 YEARS LONG!!! ACK!!!

Good Luck! and do what feels right!
 
Originally posted by medcat3
I think that an illness like Fibromyalgia would definitely benefit from a FP/IM-Psych physician...but that's about it. I want to do Psychiatry, not primary care, and is why I chose a Psych only program. FP/IM-Psych combined residencies typically run 5 years. I've heard that UCSD has a great program. I personally do not see the benefit in doing a combined residency.

Neuro-Psych is somewhat of a different story. Neurologists and Psychiatrist that I speak to feel that the two fields will eventually meet up again in the future as we discover more about brain anatomy and how it relates to behavior.

There are hospitals moving toward a med/psych combined floor. Some studies quote that a high percentage of patients with chronic medical problems have psych illnesses (well, depression comes to mind immediately). Lot of psych patients also have dual diagnosis. Drug rehab definitely has a huge medicine component to it. Furthermore, some physical symptoms can be ambiguous. For example, recurring chest pain with shortness of breath...Is it medical (i.e. angina or hyperthroidism) or psychological (panic attack)?

Lastly, yes, some chronic medical patients who have psych issues are better managed by med-psych docs. In fact, primiary care docs don't want to be bothered by these patients and if possible, they will be more than happy to allow med-psych docs total control over these patients and hand off those "hot potatoes" away.

End-of-life terminal care is also an area where med-psych docs can make a difference. Many patients who give up treatments or consider euthanasia could very well be clinically depressed!!! I do not believe that most docs (be it oncologists or onc surgeons) have the capability to help patients in this type of situation.

This neuro-psych thing, however, bewilders me. I don't foresee any definitive "brain" causes behind personality d/o to be discovered any time soon. Furthermore, much of neurology does not overlap with psych: ex. various muscular disorders, parkinsons, huntingtons, etc. Psychiatrists also don't deal with strokes and lesions of the brain per se.

If you get someone waking up with paraplegia, you send them to neurologists right away (unless it is conversion d/o).

In contrast, a female in her 40's developing chest pain can very likely have either medical and psychological issues.

I just see more overlap between med and psych than between neuro and psych.
 
A psychiatrist that I spoke with a few weeks ago told me that it will be Psychiatry and Endocrinology meeting up in the future to combat mental illness. He said that it is undeniably the glands causing many mental illnesses. However, regardless of whether Psych will meet up with Neuro, Med, or Endo (a sub of Med), the future looks to be promising for the next generation of Psychiatrists (us) and their patients (ours).
 
Great point, rotty. Two the psychiatrists with whom I work received postdoctoral training in neuroendocrinology and are working on TRH therapy for opiate dependence. Neat stuff.
 
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