When did you know you wanted to do psychiatry?

[InanelyHighNut]

I am currently applying for medical school, but I tend to look ahead (meaning daydreaming) and wonder if possibly psychiatry would be right for me.

I know it might seem a little early to start speculating about this, but I hear that the 3rd year of medical school only gives you a brief glimpse into a few specialties - not nearly enough information to make an informed decision. I wouldn't want to go into a specialty only to find that it didn't fit with my personality later on.

I also read The Making of a Psychiatrist by David Viscott and found the subject matter pretty interesting. But books being books, I'm sure he leaves out a lot and generalizes some things. Plus it came out in the 70s so I'm sure times have changed since then.

Do you guys think it's too early to tell?

Thanks in advance.

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[RGMSU]

You may have some early indications of interest based on reading and such, but your interest will either be solidified or weakened based on clinical rotations in the field (year 3/4) and a careful consideration of pertinent economic, workforce, lifestyle, etc, considerations as a time comes to commit. Most people change their minds more than once over the course of medical school.

 

[OldPsychDoc]

Try to find a couple of psychiatrists near where you are and ask for an informational interview. Never too early to start chatting up the local docs...

 

[Doctor Bagel]

I know it might seem a little early to start speculating about this, but I hear that the 3rd year of medical school only gives you a brief glimpse into a few specialties - not nearly enough information to make an informed decision. I wouldn't want to go into a specialty only to find that it didn't fit with my personality later on.

Thanks in advance.

As OPD said, investigating early is never a bad thing, but I think your bigger question right now is whether or not you want to go to medical school. Specialty decisions really can come later. The thing about 3rd year is that you don't get enough exposure to some specialties or the outpatient component of lots of the more primary fields. Luckily for us, psychiatry is a core rotation at every medical school, so you should see enough psychiatry to know whether or not you like it. You have to be a little more proactive about exposure if you think you'd like something like derm, radiology, ent, ophthalmalogy, pathology or even neuro at most schools.