If you specialize in Psychiatry after med school, are what you study in the specialty same as college psych?

Question

other than prescription medications

Answer 1

Not at all. In the US, from about the third year of medical school on, you are spending more time in clinics and hospitals and less time in the classroom. "Psych" is one of many specialties (ob/gyn, pediatrics, surgery, etc.) medical students rotate through in the last two years of med school. You'd be working in a psych ward, mental hospital, VA center, or some other place with lots of patients that have mental illnesses, and you'll be treating them, just like a doctor.

At the end of medical school is a big old sorting out process that will hopefully result in the medical student being placed in an internship or residency in the specialty of his or her choosing.

Let's say you got your dream of a residency in psychiatry. You'll be working as a medical doctor under the supervision of attending psychiatrists, making about as much as a teacher makes for several years. Your learning is on the job or on your own time. In between 24 or 36 hour on-calls, you'll also be hitting the books to study for the boards--the exams that make you a board certified psychiatrist.

After that, you may choose to take a fellowship in a more specialized area, or you may choose to go into private practice.