Psychiatry?

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cottagepepper

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I was wondering what medical schools thought about an applicant who would like to go into child and adolescent psychiatry...
I have been working as a RA for child/adol psych for last year and half, and it seems like other fields view psychiatry as 'weird' and 'not really a field of medicine'...
Now that I am reading my personal statement again it sounds more like a ps for a child/adol psych residency program!
Will this throw the admission officers off????
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cottagepepper said:
I was wondering what medical schools thought about an applicant who would like to go into child and adolescent psychiatry...
I have been working as a RA for child/adol psych for last year and half, and it seems like other fields view psychiatry as 'weird' and 'not really a field of medicine'...
Now that I am reading my personal statement again it sounds more like a ps for a child/adol psych residency program!
Will this throw the admission officers off????
Click to expand...
They might accept you based on this fact alone. There is an abnormally low number of outpatient child/adolescent psychiatry. I know this because my school had an entire seminar about it the other day! Best of luck, and I hope you get in. :thumbup:
 
SaltySqueegee said:
They might accept you based on this fact alone. There is an abnormally low number of outpatient child/adolescent psychiatry. I know this because my school had an entire seminar about it the other day! Best of luck, and I hope you get in. :thumbup:
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That is so sweet:) Thank you, saltysqueegee!
 
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I am currently an undergrad and will be applying to medical school this year; I will begin my application personal statement in the next few days or so, but am struggling with something:

I have always been interested in medicine, but in undergrad became especially interested in psychiatry, and many of my involvements during undergrad have been psychiatry related. For the last couple of weeks I have thought that writing about my interest in psychiatry and my involvements would be a great thing – it shows why I am interested, allows me to talk more about my activities, and shows my passion. I also have heard that there is currently a need for psychiatrists and perhaps that would help as well (not sure).

However, I was talking to a doctor the other day about medical school. I told him I am interested in going into psychiatry after medical school and he told me not to say that on my application because many doctors still look down upon psychiatry/think it’s not “real medicine”. Perhaps it is just the area I am living (small town on the east coast), but I am not sure what to do now that I have heard this several times. I plan to apply to schools mostly in California where I have aunts and uncles.

Anyway, I plan to pursue psychiatry regardless, but wanted your input/advice on if I should really be focusing my essay on psychiatry given this. Would it hurt my chances of admission b/c the person reading may look down on psychiatry? Or would it look bad to seem like I already know what I want to go into before I start medical school? I would really appreciate any honest & unbiased insight and advice you could provide me on this and anything you think I should be sure to include if I do write about my interest psychiatry. Please feel free to post or PM me.

Thank you! Amanda
 
MissAmanda said:
I am currently an undergrad and will be applying to medical school this year; I will begin my application personal statement in the next few days or so, but am struggling with something:

I have always been interested in medicine, but in undergrad became especially interested in psychiatry, and many of my involvements during undergrad have been psychiatry related. For the last couple of weeks I have thought that writing about my interest in psychiatry and my involvements would be a great thing – it shows why I am interested, allows me to talk more about my activities, and shows my passion. I also have heard that there is currently a need for psychiatrists and perhaps that would help as well (not sure).

However, I was talking to a doctor the other day about medical school. I told him I am interested in going into psychiatry after medical school and he told me not to say that on my application because many doctors still look down upon psychiatry/think it’s not “real medicine”. Perhaps it is just the area I am living (small town on the east coast), but I am not sure what to do now that I have heard this several times. I plan to apply to schools mostly in California where I have aunts and uncles.

Anyway, I plan to pursue psychiatry regardless, but wanted your input/advice on if I should really be focusing my essay on psychiatry given this. Would it hurt my chances of admission b/c the person reading may look down on psychiatry? Or would it look bad to seem like I already know what I want to go into before I start medical school? I would really appreciate any honest & unbiased insight and advice you could provide me on this and anything you think I should be sure to include if I do write about my interest psychiatry. Please feel free to post or PM me.

Thank you! Amanda
Click to expand...

I haven't heard anyone say psychiatry wasn't real medicine (except jokingly), but I would still recommend that you avoid stating with absolute certainty that you are going into that field. Just like college majors, medical students change their specialty decisions frequently during medical school. It is fine to explore an interest in psychiatry, but until you have done your 3rd year rotations it would be unwise to plan on pursuing it as a career. Stating so would likely be interpreted as arrogant or as not having an open mind.
 
Warning: Off-topic. Completely.

My best friend wants to go into psychiatry, and he is probably the "slowest" person I have ever met. He hasn't looked into the "process" at all, but he is soon to come to the dreadful realization of how hard it actually is. His parents have a ton of $ though, so let's hope that does something for him. He's a good guy.

But I digress, have a great day everyone!
 
cottagepepper said:
I was wondering what medical schools thought about an applicant who would like to go into child and adolescent psychiatry...
I have been working as a RA for child/adol psych for last year and half, and it seems like other fields view psychiatry as 'weird' and 'not really a field of medicine'...
Now that I am reading my personal statement again it sounds more like a ps for a child/adol psych residency program!
Will this throw the admission officers off????
Click to expand...

Child and adolescent psychiatry is absolute pseudoscience.
 
Depakote said:
I haven't heard anyone say psychiatry wasn't real medicine (except jokingly).
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You're hearing someone say it right now- psychiatry isn't real medicine.
 
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:)
 
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skee lo said:
You're hearing someone say it now. Psychiatry isn't real medicine, and I'm not joking in the slightest.
Click to expand...

Then I hope you are never faced with debilitating mental illness. Or your children diagnosed with developmental or psychiatric disorders. Come on, dude.
 
skee lo said:
You're hearing someone say it now. Psychiatry isn't real medicine, and I'm not joking in the slightest.
Click to expand...

:thumbdown:

To the OP, I am interested in the same field, though the only thing I worry about is that I'm going to be a "pill pusher" and I don't want that in the slightest. Most of the child psychs that I know see those kids to check up on them and make sure they are taking their meds, and that's about the extent of their relationship with them. I want something more but not sure if it can happen given issues with insurance and just the nature of the industry. If anyone knows different, I would love to hear some other thoughts.
 
skee lo said:
You're hearing someone say it now. Psychiatry isn't real medicine, and I'm not joking in the slightest.
Click to expand...

Statements like this are archaic, stigmatizing and ignorant. If you're arguing on the humanity front, psychiatry saves lives, if you're arguing on the science front, fMRI alone makes it not only a science, but one of the few areas of medicine that is still truly a frontier. Just because the path isn't all laid out nicely for you doesn't mean it isn't medicine.

As for the OP, however, I'd hesitate to go overboard emphasizing the subject since it does fall under "controversial".
 
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fireflygirl said:
:thumbdown:

To the OP, I am interested in the same field, though the only thing I worry about is that I'm going to be a "pill pusher" and I don't want that in the slightest. Most of the child psychs that I know see those kids to check up on them and make sure they are taking their meds, and that's about the extent of their relationship with them. I want something more but not sure if it can happen given issues with insurance and just the nature of the industry. If anyone knows different, I would love to hear some other thoughts.
Click to expand...

It is possible to work in psych without simply doing med checks, unfortunately this will involve making a lot less money than you could potentially. Med check appointments are quick and efficient, they let you see many more patients in a day and insurance companies reimburse for them well. Non-med check office visits with psychotherapy are beneficial to the patient but are more time-intensive and generate less revenue for the time spent. Not to say it isn't more rewarding... It all comes down to what you want to get out of your practice (you'll still be making a pretty decent amount of money at the end of the day...)
 
skee lo said:
You're hearing someone say it now. Psychiatry isn't real medicine, and I'm not joking in the slightest.
Click to expand...
Oh, look, a May 2008 with 7 posts and an inflammatory and ignorant point of view. Couldn't possibly be a troll!
 
For those applying - you can certainly include your experiences in your PS, but I would encourage you to discuss why these experiences convinced you that you want to be a doctor, rather than a psychiatrist. And I would recommend that to anyone, regardless of what specialty they thought they wanted to go into. Everyone in medicine knows that many applicants will change their mind throughout med school, or not like the field that they had originally wanted to go into, and if you say "I want to be a psychiatrist and ONLY a psychiatrist", and then you don't like psychiatry, the question is, will you like anything else or are you a wasted spot. Therefore, it's best just to profess your love for medicine as a whole.

On interviews, you will be asked what fields you are considering, and it's also best to list a few... for example, you could say "I'm interested in something to do with children, probably either child and adolescent psychiatry or pediatrics", etc.

To ejay - psychiatry is a required rotation at all medical schools (as far as I know). I'm not sure if that's what you meant by rounds?
 
diosa428 said:
For those applying - you can certainly include your experiences in your PS, but I would encourage you to discuss why these experiences convinced you that you want to be a doctor, rather than a psychiatrist. And I would recommend that to anyone, regardless of what specialty they thought they wanted to go into. Everyone in medicine knows that many applicants will change their mind throughout med school, or not like the field that they had originally wanted to go into, and if you say "I want to be a psychiatrist and ONLY a psychiatrist", and then you don't like psychiatry, the question is, will you like anything else or are you a wasted spot. Therefore, it's best just to profess your love for medicine as a whole.
Click to expand...

This is great advice. I think med schools really want to hear that you are open to all specialties, and that you realize how much your interests and goals will be shaped by your diverse exposures in medical school.
 
I am a pre-med with a definite interest in psych and I mentioned that in my interviews. I think the biggest factor in my decision to mention it was that two of my interviewers happened to be psychiatrists.

I did get a lot of advice from people about not mentioning such a strong interest, as they felt that admissions committees want to find people that are open-minded or something like that. But in the right context, I don't think it's a bad thing to show your passion for a particular field, especially if you have experiences in the area.
 
i think the whole state of Oregon has like 2 child psychiatrists. there is a ridiculous shortage nationwide so i would think your interest in the specialty would be appealing to adcoms.

EDIT: Wyoming
 
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I believe that it was Richard Selzer, the Yale professor of surgery and literature, who referred to psychiatrists as the "Nuns" of the medical profession. I am not certain what Dr. Selzer meant precisely, but it is an interesting image, more poetic than literal, I suppose.
 
In case anyone didn't notice, the actual OP (cottagepepper) was from 2004, so for our purposes we should consider MissAmanda the OP, and she didn't mention anything about child psychiatry specifically.
 
BigRedder said:
In case anyone didn't notice, the actual OP (cottagepepper) was from 2004, so for our purposes we should consider MissAmanda the OP, and she didn't mention anything about child psychiatry specifically.
Click to expand...


Thank you BigRedder & everyone, I actually am interested specifically in child psych, I have a lot of experience in both child and adult. Thanks for all your advice everyone, but I am wondering if the majority of my med activities are psych related how do I go about not saying I want to go into psych - wouldn't it be obvious?
 
TheProwler said:
Oh, look, a May 2008 with 7 posts and an inflammatory and ignorant point of view. Couldn't possibly be a troll!
Click to expand...

No troll, that's just my opinion. There are a lot of people who are not impressed with psychiatry and I just happen to be one of them. I think I should be able to state my opinion without being accused of trolling.

The Tom Cruise remark is sophomoric.
 
Sartre said:
Then I hope you are never faced with debilitating mental illness. Or your children diagnosed with developmental or psychiatric disorders. Come on, dude.
Click to expand...

Been there and done that. Spent four years spinning my wheels while a psychiatrist tinkered with my meds every month trying to find the magical combo that was finally going to fix the "chemical imbalance" causing my depression. Finally I wised up and quit, and made a complete recovery within a year. No meds at all now and I'm far better off than I ever was under the care of a psychiatrist. I believe the drugs only perpetuated the problem and prevented me from recovering much sooner.
 
skee lo said:
Been there and done that. Spent four years spinning my wheels while a psychiatrist tinkered with my meds every month trying to find the magical combo that was finally going to fix the "chemical imbalance" causing my depression. Finally I wised up and quit, and made a complete recovery within a year. No meds at all now and I'm far better off than I ever was under the care of a psychiatrist. I believe the drugs only perpetuated the problem and prevented me from recovering much sooner.
Click to expand...

So why didn't you "recover" yourself prior to going to a psychiatrist? Hmm?
 
Sorry, that question is too stupid for me to answer.
 
Thanks everyone for your post & help. I think I can understand why I shouldn't sound too focused/narrow minded in my essay. Do you think it is okay to say "I have an interest in psych" and explain why? Or should I stay away from anything too specific entirely?

Also how do I get around that 3/4 of my activities are psych related, doesn't it make it obvious what my interest is? My letters of rec may have mentioned it as well, as one was written by a psych.

It's difficult b/c I had thought all this time that adcoms would be impressed that I had a genuine interest in something, and that I had shown it in my activities, but now I am feeling that I need to be more vague and less excited/passionate, and that I can't explain how I got interested in psych.

Maybe I can try to show that my interest in psych sparked a general interest in medicine or something? I am open to other areas, but so far have had the most exposure/interest in psych.

Thanks everyone for the input so far!
 
skee lo said:
Sorry, that question is too stupid for me to answer.
Click to expand...

So you go to a psychiatrist for years when you claim all you had to do was be off meds to have a full recovery? Good one. Why didn't you realize that from the start?
 
Alfred E Newman said:
So you go to a psychiatrist for years when you claim all you had to do was be off meds to have a full recovery? Good one. Why didn't you realize that from the start?
Click to expand...

Because, like most people, I suffered from the naive belief that you're supposed to go to a psychiatrist when you get depressed. I knew nothing about about psychiatry or mental health when I got started- I just trusted whatever the psychiatrist said.

I don't know why I recovered after quitting meds and I never did anything special to "cure" myself. I'm just pissed that I wasted four years of my young adulthood taking worthless psychiatric pills and only got better after I stopped. And not without a prolonged period of horrible discontinuation syndrome, to top it off.

Having scrutinized the behavior of the psychiatric establishment in great detail since quitting, I now believe that this is a corrupt system of medicine. I think the medical community's misplaced faith in psychiatry is a result of arbitrary, blind acceptance of authority. You kids just absorb whatever you're told in training.
 
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i agree with scientologists about psychiatry.
 
skee lo said:
Because, like most people, I suffered from the naive belief that you're supposed to go to a psychiatrist when you get depressed. I knew nothing about about psychiatry or mental health when I got started- I just trusted whatever the psychiatrist said.

I don't know why I recovered after quitting meds and I never did anything special to "cure" myself. I'm just pissed that I wasted four years of my young adulthood taking worthless pills and only got better after I stopped taking them. And not without a prolonged period of horrible discontinuation syndrome, to top it off.
Click to expand...

Maybe you should see a psychiatrist about these feelings.
 
skee lo said:
Because, like most people, I suffered from the naive belief that you're supposed to go to a psychiatrist when you get depressed. I knew nothing about about psychiatry or mental health when I got started- I just trusted whatever the psychiatrist said.

I don't know why I recovered after quitting meds and I never did anything special to "cure" myself. I'm just pissed that I wasted four years of my young adulthood taking worthless pills and only got better after I stopped. And not without a prolonged period of horrible discontinuation syndrome, to top it off.

Having scrutinized the behavior of the psychiatric establishment in great detail since quitting, I now believe that this is a corrupt system of medicine. I think the medical community's misplaced faith in psychiatry is a result of arbitrary, blind acceptance of medical authority. You kids just absorb whatever you're told in training.
Click to expand...

The medical community believes in medical authority? That's mindblowing -- does 60 Minutes know about this? Next thing, you'll be telling me that lawyers are somehow connected with the law.
 
Depakote said:
The important thing to realize is that if that one person with one disease can get better without psychiatrist intervention, everyone with any disease should be able to do so.
Click to expand...

The question of whether he's better or not hasn't really been answered...he's clearly at least still got some anger issues. ;-)

NewmansOwn said:
Maybe you should see a psychiatrist about these feelings.
Click to expand...

:laugh:

To Amanda: personally I think it's fine for you to express that passion given that you have a number of activities to back it up. It would be good to avoid anything that gives the impression that you don't have any interest in the rest of medicine - you probably want to say something about how medical school is an opportunity to further explore or some such - but at the end of the day your PS is about you, and it sounds like psych is important to you. Take all that with a liberal dose of salt though - I haven't gotten in yet.
 
NewmansOwn said:
The medical community believes in medical authority? That's mindblowing -- does 60 Minutes know about this? Next thing, you'll be telling me that lawyers are somehow connected with the law.
Click to expand...

I really hope you aren't going into medicine.
 
skee lo said:
Having scrutinized the behavior of the psychiatric establishment in great detail since quitting, I now believe that this is a corrupt system of medicine. I think the medical community's misplaced faith in psychiatry is a result of arbitrary, blind acceptance of authority. You kids just absorb whatever you're told in training.
Click to expand...

I think you'll find that evidence based medicine is a system that constantly reviews it's own systems. Self assessment and peer reviews are the corner-stones of this system. It is a constantly evolving system and it is definitely not perfect, but it is far from arbitrary.

(edit: that is, you should find as you begin your medical training)
 
skee lo said:
I really hope you aren't going into medicine.
Click to expand...

Easy there, Mr. Skee -- just come back to the institution and we'll sit down and talk. If I have to make Juan give you Haldol again, I'm going to take your chocolate pudding privileges away for a week.
 
skee lo said:
Because, like most people, I suffered from the naive belief that you're supposed to go to a psychiatrist when you get depressed. I knew nothing about about psychiatry or mental health when I got started- I just trusted whatever the psychiatrist said.

I don't know why I recovered after quitting meds and I never did anything special to "cure" myself. I'm just pissed that I wasted four years of my young adulthood taking worthless psychiatric pills and only got better after I stopped. And not without a prolonged period of horrible discontinuation syndrome, to top it off.

Having scrutinized the behavior of the psychiatric establishment in great detail since quitting, I now believe that this is a corrupt system of medicine. I think the medical community's misplaced faith in psychiatry is a result of arbitrary, blind acceptance of authority. You kids just absorb whatever you're told in training.
Click to expand...

Well have you ever stopped to wonder if you were truly depressed or not?
 
Depakote said:
I think you'll find that evidence based medicine is a system that constantly reviews it's own systems. Self assessment and peer reviews are the corner-stones of this system. It is a constantly evolving system and it is definitely not perfect, but it is far from arbitrary.

(edit: that is, you should find as you begin your medical training)
Click to expand...

I doubt that there is any point in arguing with someone who names himself after one of the most offensive substances that has ever been administered in the name of medical treatment, but for the sake of those who might be reading with an open mind: evidence-based m medicine, while conceptually sound, is prone to corruption, especially when government-industry entanglements like the FDA emerge. The peer-review system now primarily functions to exclude dissenting schools of thought so that anyone who opposes current psychiatric practices is not taken seriously. What passes as "evidence-based medicine" is really more like "industry financed medicne."
 
skee lo said:
I doubt that there is any point in arguing with someone who names himself after one of the most offensive substances that has ever been administered in the name of medical treatment, but for the sake of those who might be reading with an open mind: evidence-based m medicine, while conceptually sound, is prone to corruption, especially when government-industry entanglements like the FDA emerge. The peer-review system now primarily functions to exclude dissenting schools of thought so that anyone who opposes current psychiatric practices is not taken seriously. What passes as "evidence-based medicine" is really more like "industry financed medicne."
Click to expand...

If you're going to turn this into an intellectual conversation of some real depth, I'm all in. Let's hear some facts added to your opinions; I won't shut you out for hating psychiatry without first hearing why. Dissenting schools of thought keep the mind alive.
 
skee lo said:
I really hope you aren't going into medicine.
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Whoops sorry I thought I was responding to the other "Newman" in this thread, my apologies.
 
:)
 
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