Undergraduate Coursework Relevance

[Leefa]

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Hey everyone,

As an undergrad who is planning on going into medicine, I have been intrigued a bit by the discipline of psychiatry. I have somewhat of a keen interest in the mind, thus, I am a declared psychology and philosophy minor. What is the usefulness, if any, of these undergraduate courses to a career in psychiatry? I plan on taking biological psych, followed by pharmaceutical psych before medical school.

From what I can gather, pharmacology is a large part of psychiatry. What about the philosophical end of things? I doubt there will be much connection, but any relationship between philosophy and psychiatry would give me a big push into the field.

 

[nitemagi]

Take the courses that interest you. It won't change your ability to get into the field or not. It may make you a more interesting person and standout from all the biochem majors going into med school. A good intro at an undergrad level is abnormal psych, as far as the actual illnesses you'll see.

 

[TexasPhysician]

No usefulness in undergrad courses. Just have fun.

 

[OldPsychDoc]

They can be "useful" inasmuch as they are useful to YOU--keeping you interested in the philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of the field, helping you be intellectually sharp, and possibly setting you up for a big money win on "Jeopardy" someday. 😀

 

[billypilgrim37]

...possibly setting you up for a big money win on "Jeopardy" someday...

this has been my only hope for a while.

 

[whopper]

Semi-agree with the above. Undergrad is about broadening your horizons. Medicine is about ultra-specializing and in a sense actually narrowing them. I encourage broadening them as much as you can while you can.

But there are specific psychology and even philosophy courses in addition to others that are highly beneficial to psychology (edit: psychiatry) that are not taught in a usual psychiatric curriculum.

E.g. behavioral neuroendocrinology, developmental psychobiology, psychopharmacology, statistics, physiological psychology, among several others.

This stuff does have relevance in clinical mental health, yet when I took these classes, several of the things taught in them were not taught or taught as well as when I was in residency. Further in residency, while you are taught things, IMHO it's half-assed compared to a class where you're actually tested. When in residency, during lecture, most of the residents are either suffering from lack of sleep, or more concerned about Step III and thus aren't listening as intently knowing they will not be tested on it.

 

[Sneezing]

Take several statistics courses.
If you aren't that open minded to understand other cultures/religions, consider taking an intro to theology course.
Take a criminal justice course to get some basics on the legal system.

Pursue more in the arena of molecular genetics and biochemistry.

DON'T FORGET TO TAKE DANCING CLASSES!!!! This is a must.

 

[notdeadyet]

Instead of taking content-driven courses, take courses that teach you how to think critically and analyze problems. I get the impression that many pre-meds drink deeper from the fill-'er-up courses and you'll have plenty of time to learn all that in med school. Imho, you're best off learning how to think during your college years. Your undergraduate education is pretty much the best time to learn how to actually be a thinker, if you can be bothered. No one's going to spend that kind of time on you later.

Philosophy, literature, politics, anthropology, economics, mathematics, cognitive/neuroscience are all pretty good for this.

While you're at it, take the time to learn a second language. Only a small minority of the world speaks English as a first language. Bother to learn someone else's language. It will expand your world far more than just linguistically.

 

[flash]

👍

Instead of taking content-driven courses, take courses that teach you how to think critically and analyze problems. I get the impression that many pre-meds drink deeper from the fill-'er-up courses and you'll have plenty of time to learn all that in med school. Imho, you're best off learning how to think during your college years. Your undergraduate education is pretty much the best time to learn how to actually be a thinker, if you can be bothered. No one's going to spend that kind of time on you later.

Philosophy, literature, politics, anthropology, economics, mathematics, cognitive/neuroscience are all pretty good for this.

While you're at it, take the time to learn a second language. Only a small minority of the world speaks English as a first language. Bother to learn someone else's language. It will expand your world far more than just linguistically.

👍👍👍