Medical Education US

dr. Admin:

i'm currently a soon-to-be 4th year and i'm thinking about med-psych programs. couple questions for you: do med-psych people only take care of medical issues for psych patients or can they act as consultants? i've noticed by looking at the med-psych jobs openings they tend to be heavily academic in nature. can one still have a private psych practive as well. also what is the salary of med-psych compared to just doing psych?

thanks a bunch.

moz

Do med-psych people only take care of medical issues for psych patients or can they act as consultants?

Med-psych people are able to do pretty much anything that an internist can do and anything that a psychiatrist can do. Some examples are general internal medicine, general psychiatry, consultation psychiatry (psychiatry in the medicall ill, now referred to as Psychosomatic Medicine), geriatric psychiatry, or doing a combination of medicine and psychiatry.

i've noticed by looking at the med-psych jobs openings they tend to be heavily academic in nature. can one still have a private psych practive as well.

Med-psych grads are well suited to academics, but I know many who are doing psychiatry in private practice.

also what is the salary of med-psych compared to just doing psych?

I don't really have any information other than what I've heard from my friends and observed from the types of jobs they are taking. I'd say in general, people I know are making around the same as people in general psychiatry - but they seem to have been in higher demand, thus, they were able to get the better jobs.

[ Edited by Admin on 2005/1/27 18:14 ]