Clinical Psychology or Psychiatry

The last order

Hi all,

I have a undergraduate psychology degree and I have just received a masters in psychology this past summer. I had always thought that I would eventually go the clinical psychology route. Now that I'm at the stage where it's in my grasp, I am having doubts. From my classmate's experiences, to the scarcity of assistant psychology posts in Ireland, to recent/ upcoming cuts in the HSE, it appears that the benefits of becoming a clinical psychologist are becoming diminished in light of the difficulties involved. And leaving Ireland isn't an option for me right now.

That's my background. Recently a medical friend suggested I go into psychiatry. From what he was saying, the path from undergraduate to psychiatrist is much more streamlined than attempting to climb through the bottle-neck that is entrance to Dclin courses. I also feel that with my background in psychology I would be pretty well placed to work in Psychiatry. So I have a few questions for anyone who could help me out with some info as I really know nothing about med school and psychiatry training.

1. Would my psychology background help cut off a few years of med school?

2. How would the study required for medicine, compare to undergraduate psychology? In other words does it more or less require the same strengths, or is there a possibility that I would feel out of my depth in medicine? (I found my undergrad and masters relatively easy going, once I put the work in)

3. Is this a common career path? I assume psychology would share a lot of common ground with psychiatry apart from the medicinal aspect of psychiatry.

Wow, this is longer than I meant it to be. In short, I have an undergrad and masters in psychology, should I continue aiming for clinical psychology or try to get into psychiatry?

Thanks for reading!

dissed doc

The last order wrote: »

Hi all,


1. Would my psychology background help cut off a few years of med school?

No. You will still have to do whatever is the requriement to get the basic medical degree - it will be shorter, e.g., graduate entry programs.

2. How would the study required for medicine, compare to undergraduate psychology? In other words does it more or less require the same strengths, or is there a possibility that I would feel out of my depth in medicine? (I found my undergrad and masters relatively easy going, once I put the work in)

Even though psychiatry might be the aim, you must do all that is required for a general medical degree first incl. tropical medicine, anatomy, physiology of the whole body. If you have gone this far I am sure you will not find it difficult - the real challenge will be if you find it interesting enough.

3. Is this a common career path? I assume psychology would share a lot of common ground with psychiatry apart from the medicinal aspect of psychiatry.

Around 1-5% of a medical school class pursue training in psychiatry. Around 20% of them stick with to become specialists. Basically, it is not as common as general medicine, surgery or GP. There will be similarities but less and less so as time moves on and psychiatry really is just a building block to "clinical neuroscience". There are other aspects, but the biggest difference is you are a medical doctor first and foremost so you must have all that stuff done and understood. If you don't like learning about Kreb's cycle, it will make it difficult for you unfortunately.

My advice? Yes definitely. It is worth it, but aim to emigrate after medical school for better postgraduate training and working life.



Wow, this is longer than I meant it to be. In short, I have an undergrad and masters in psychology, should I continue aiming for clinical psychology or try to get into psychiatry?

Thanks for reading![/QUOTE]

JuliusCaesar

The last order wrote: »

1. Would my psychology background help cut off a few years of med school?

No as said, you'd do the lot.

The last order wrote: »

2. How would the study required for medicine, compare to undergraduate psychology? In other words does it more or less require the same strengths, or is there a possibility that I would feel out of my depth in medicine? (I found my undergrad and masters relatively easy going, once I put the work in)

It's different. Even though we do (well, I did) psychophysiology, neurology & brain damage as an undergrad, we spent a lot of time debating theories. "It could be this, it could be that". I loved it. However, medicine AFAICS is not much about debating theories but learning facts. "This is how it is."

The last order wrote: »

3. Is this a common career path? I assume psychology would share a lot of common ground with psychiatry apart from the medicinal aspect of psychiatry.

No, but you wouldn't be the first! But, no, there doesn't seem to be a lot of psychology in psychiatry - they are very different models. However, I do think that having psychology will be useful especially as psychiatrists are I think required to do some psychotherapy training.

The last order

dissed doc wrote: »

No. You will still have to do whatever is the requriement to get the basic medical degree - it will be shorter, e.g., graduate entry programs.



Even though psychiatry might be the aim, you must do all that is required for a general medical degree first incl. tropical medicine, anatomy, physiology of the whole body. If you have gone this far I am sure you will not find it difficult - the real challenge will be if you find it interesting enough.


Around 1-5% of a medical school class pursue training in psychiatry. Around 20% of them stick with to become specialists. Basically, it is not as common as general medicine, surgery or GP. There will be similarities but less and less so as time moves on and psychiatry really is just a building block to "clinical neuroscience". There are other aspects, but the biggest difference is you are a medical doctor first and foremost so you must have all that stuff done and understood. If you don't like learning about Kreb's cycle, it will make it difficult for you unfortunately.

My advice? Yes definitely. It is worth it, but aim to emigrate after medical school for better postgraduate training and working life.



Wow, this is longer than I meant it to be. In short, I have an undergrad and masters in psychology, should I continue aiming for clinical psychology or try to get into psychiatry?

Thanks for reading!

[/QUOTE]
Thanks for the reply Dissed Doc, I found the biological bases of behaviour and neurology parts of psychology fascinating. Yet those were the exams I had the most trouble with, due to having to remember large reams of information without the supporting context of theory to help trigger my memory!

It is looking like the content of the medical course is a major factor in deciding which direction I take.

The last order

JuliusCaesar wrote: »

No as said, you'd do the lot.



It's different. Even though we do (well, I did) psychophysiology, neurology & brain damage as an undergrad, we spent a lot of time debating theories. "It could be this, it could be that". I loved it. However, medicine AFAICS is not much about debating theories but learning facts. "This is how it is."



No, but you wouldn't be the first! But, no, there doesn't seem to be a lot of psychology in psychiatry - they are very different models. However, I do think that having psychology will be useful especially as psychiatrists are I think required to do some psychotherapy training.

I think you're right about medicine being all about the facts, I guess it's down to there being a lot of info about the body that is incontestable and so just needs to be learned off. Unlike our knowledge of the brain and it's functions!


I suppose I would hate to feel like I am relegating 5 years of college to the scrap heap, in order to start all over again and end up at a pretty similar end point.

dissed doc

The last order wrote: »

I think you're right about medicine being all about the facts, I guess it's down to there being a lot of info about the body that is incontestable and so just needs to be learned off. Unlike our knowledge of the brain and it's functions!


I suppose I would hate to feel like I am relegating 5 years of college to the scrap heap, in order to start all over again and end up at a pretty similar end point.

Absolutely not - I don't think it would be on the scrap heap atall and more likely the opposite (it would be no different if you chose a branch of psychology in a PhD and didn't really use things you learned in first year of your undergrad degree). What would be much more likely id you could slant your undergrad medical career to psychiatry and mental health, as there are huge aspects to it for research in virtually every clinical speciality (except of course, anatomy of your leg!).

I.e., research on pharmacology, biochemistry, liaison psychiatry in surgical or medical rortations, etc., . It's something new, don't let it put you off.

kitkat.3b4t

I think to become a medical doctor takes around 6 years, then I'd imagine 2-3 years further to register as a psychiatrist. In all this would be a further 8-9 years. With your undergrad and postgrad you have already put in a number of years on the psychology path. Although the route to clinical psychology is very difficult, studying medicine and psychiatry might not be any easier. Have you contacted TCD to enquire about studying medicine? Hopefully someone with more knowledge of this will be able to give you further advice.

dissed doc

kitkat.3b4t wrote: »

I think to become a medical doctor takes around 6 years, then I'd imagine 2-3 years further to register as a psychiatrist. In all this would be a further 8-9 years. With your undergrad and postgrad you have already put in a number of years on the psychology path. Although the route to clinical psychology is very difficult, studying medicine and psychiatry might not be any easier. Have you contacted TCD to enquire about studying medicine? Hopefully someone with more knowledge of this will be able to give you further advice.

A bit longer actually - medical school (6 yrs, or as low as 4 depending on those graduate programs). After that, internship - 1 year. Then, specialist training which is divided into two groups of three years with usually a gap in the middle for research or teaching, so roughly, ~ 7-8 years of specialisation as a junior doctor after the medical degree. Around say 12-14yrs from starting medicine in total.

Velvety

You'll also have to sit the GAMSAT and there's about 50k in fees to pay. I don't mean to discourage, if you decide it's what you want to do I'd go for it. But from your original post it seems that it's the difficulty involved in getting a training place that is turning you off clinical psychology. The road to psychiatry won't be much easier.