Psychoneuroendocrinology
Started by solumanculver
If you're looking for a specialty that works on hormones that make people crazy, they already have one of those...OB/GYN.
In all seriousness though, this sort of stuff tends to be done more by psychiatrists and neurologists than endocrinologists.
Hey, that's pretty funny
Actually, though, post-partum psychosis is one example of the collision between psychiatry and endocrinology that I'd like do research on, I'm just not sure of the clinical utility in specializing in both psychiatry and endocrinology.
Behavioral neuroendocrinology is the next big thing. I'm doing undergraduate research with one of the leaders in the field, and while I'm not sure if it's what I want to go into, I can tell you it will be HUGE for clinical research by the time you and I are done with residency.
If this is what you want to do, you should definitely do a neuroendocrinology fellowship with either neurology or psychiatry for residency. When you choose your fellowship, just choose someone with the research interests you want, which I assume are mainly behavioral. I don't really know much about the differences between psychiatry and neurology when you get to the behavioral area, but you can do the fellowship with either one, so it must not be that important to do one over the other.
If this is what you want to do, you should definitely do a neuroendocrinology fellowship with either neurology or psychiatry for residency. When you choose your fellowship, just choose someone with the research interests you want, which I assume are mainly behavioral. I don't really know much about the differences between psychiatry and neurology when you get to the behavioral area, but you can do the fellowship with either one, so it must not be that important to do one over the other.
Hey, where are these neuroendocrinology fellowships? I haven't found any of them on FRIEDA...
May not be exactly what you are looking for but I did some research with the head of our A/I division here at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, MS. Dr. Marshall runs the Behavior Immunology Lab here. His research focuses on how the mind effects the immune system presumably, at least in part, through the endocrine system.
He had me read this book before I started with him:
The Balance Within: The Science Connecting Health and Emotions by Esther Sternberg
Anyone interested in this field should read that book. Quick, easy read, and very interesting.
Dr. Marshall did some research with Katrina victims to look at how their stress levels were effecting some of their atopic disorders, IgE levels and what not.
If you are interested, here is the info on the A/I fellowship there:
http://medres.umc.edu/fellowship/allergyandimmunology.html
He had me read this book before I started with him:
The Balance Within: The Science Connecting Health and Emotions by Esther Sternberg
Anyone interested in this field should read that book. Quick, easy read, and very interesting.
Dr. Marshall did some research with Katrina victims to look at how their stress levels were effecting some of their atopic disorders, IgE levels and what not.
If you are interested, here is the info on the A/I fellowship there:
http://medres.umc.edu/fellowship/allergyandimmunology.html
In the book I named above, the author describes this as being one of the hinderances to reseach in this field. There are different groups of specialists that are looking at these problems from their system of interest. Kind of hard to see the big picture, when you really only know about your piece of the puzzle.
Great topic for research. A lot still to be discovered. In my limited experience, be prepared for a lot of benchwork. I have a background in Molecular Biology, and definitely put it to use.
