Congrats on finishing medical school, and most of your residency. That said, I briefly read your post, and while I admire your optimism, and trust in the syste

Congrats on finishing medical school, and most of your residency. That said, I briefly read your post, and while I admire your optimism, and trust in the system; Psychiatry is currently trying to pull itself out of a deep hole of bad science, bad studies, faulty theories, etc. I'm too tired to list my gripes with the Art of Psychiatry, please don't just set up shop somewhere and make a comfortable income. Yes, set up shop. Yes, make a comfortable living. But, please there's a reason some doctors are prescribing offlabel, and taking more risks than what your being taught. The tried and true methods are not working, or working so closely to placebo it's beyond ironic. Seasoned Psychiatrists(with a conscious) are frustrated with the currently horrid cure rates, with the "tried and trued" traditional medications. They are tired of finding all those theories are not holding up. They are just tired. Right now you are seeing the really ill. When you get out and set up shop. Most of you time will be seeing a patient every 15-30 minutes. Your patients will be a lot like you(come from a good homes, but they had a breakdown usually in their twenties, or thirties. So many will be high achievers, but stopped dead by a breakdown.). You will find so many medications just don't seem to work. SSRI's just might be the biggest scam perpetuated on the medical profession in part by Eli Lilly? Right now, you must have realized Placebo will be the best tool in your arsenal? What I am trying to say is when you get out, and set up shop, most of your patients will come to you at the worst time of their lives. They will put a lot of confidence in your judgement. Many will be paying out of pocket. I'm not going to give a soon to be doctor much advice, but question the studies. Don't just chalk up the non-responsive to statistics. I'm not saying you should take heroic risks in trying to get the patient functioning again, but be honest. I don't see anything wrong with--Patient, "The medication, and therapy didn't work as I expected, but you will get better with time!". Be honest about the results of your profession, especially when any chance of placebo cure is long gone. In other words, don't make the patients life worse because you picked a particularly ineffective speciality. Oh, yes you will probally find yourself surrounded with other Psychiatrists, and they will encourage you to keep your head up high, and keep that income up; Don't abuse that magical transference on the poorer patients. (I think you get my drift?) I'll get hammered for this post, but as a former patient these are just my honest thoughts. Take care of your own health, and realize in the end--we are all in this mess toghther?