PhD/PsyD PhD in Psychology or Neuroscience

[maybedoctor???]

Hello all, I am looking for some advice. To get straight to the point, if I want to research the neural basis of mental illness, would I be better off getting a PhD in psychology or neuroscience (or something else entirely, like epidemiology)? I have thought about going into clinical psych, but I primarily want to do research and I am not interested in doing therapy / clinical work so it does not seem like the best fit for me (but I could be wrong).
I'm just looking for someone to point me in the right direction, and share any advice / wisdom you may have about how to make the best decision as to what career path I should follow. Thanks in advance for your replies

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[deleted343839]

"The neural basis of mental illness" is super broad. There are so many ways to approach this topic. It's all "neural" but you have to decide at what level to approach the problem. For instance, if you're interested in the effects of childhood trauma on later adult psychopathology, you could do imaging studies, or studies of gene expression, or large database research, or develop an animal model, etc.

On the assumption you are in college (sorry if this is not the case), my suggestion is to take some upper-level coursework in relevant disciplines and look for experience volunteering or working in psychology and neuroscience labs. That way you can get a better feel for the types of research questions and methods common to these fields and related fields (eg, pharmacology, medicine, etc.), and then form an opinion about which discipline would best align with your training and career goals.

 

[maybedoctor???]

Thanks for the reply! Just to give more background on myself, I am a junior in college studying biopsychology. I have about a years worth of research experience in a social psych lab studying emotions, which was cool but not totally the area of psychology that i am interested in. Really when it comes to psych I am most interested in the neuroscience side of things whereas when it comes to neuro i am more interested in the psychology side of things. I'm really looking for the field that will allow me to have the best of both, so to speak. I'm mostly worried that if I go the psych route there won't be enough neuro for my liking and vise versa

 

[WisNeuro]

What @MamaPhD said, that is way too broad to give great advice. I could honestly see at least 4-5 different degrees that study the "neural basis of mental illness." One thing to consider is a hybrid type of career. Research monies and academic positions are drying up, and competition is super fierce, so the jobs can be hard to get in some areas. Additionally, the pay for full-time academic in psych have been lagging for all but the top grant getters. You may want to think about more of an AMC type career doing research and clinical work in the neuro realm (e.g., neuropsych). There are a couple people with a foot in this world on the boards.

 

[PsyDr]

Some of this depends on how you want to study.

Although not wholly the case, neuroscience tends to use methods at the micro level (eg., electrophysiology methods, micropipette or whatever that’s called, etc). I don’t know if a single neuroscientist that studies anything as broad as mental illness. Most study very small areas like purkinji cells in the X layer of Y. The smaller areas of study are usually used to infer applications to mental illness. Famously, this is basically the career of Eric kandel (who is a physician). That being said, there are neuroscientists who do bigger anatomical or gross physiological studies such as the danish neuroscientist who famously discoversed the glymmphatic system like 5 years ago.

Neuropsych studies tend to focus on cognition at the level of the person. Most studies have small areas of focus, similar to pretty much ever science. So you see tons of articles about a specific area of cognition in X illness process. Imaging is used, but tends to stay in medical schools due to cost. There are absolutely neuropsychs that do not do clinical work. Stephen Rao, a neuropsych who does see patients, did a series of studies using fMRI about the disease process of some neurological illnesses. Bigler does similar imaging stuff, as does Kiehl. Because you’re dealing with people, you need clinical experience in training at a minimum.

Epidemiologist have other methods at the more macro level. To my knowledge, there is not a huge neuro emphasis.

I hesitate to say this, but there is always Division 6 of the APA, which is termed Behavioral Neuroscience. Purely academic. Combination of behavioral experiments and neuro experiments. Highly reliant on animal models. I trained under one of the leadership guys in undergrad. Fascinating stuff, but it pays poorly and the lifestyle wasn’t what I wanted. Does not lead to ever being licensed. Might be what you’re looking for.

You would be well served to look into the lifestyle of a research scientist. You usually do not get to pick where you live for a long time.

Finally: medical school. Even a research physician makes more, and has better options.

Other things to check out: the society for neuroscience.

 

[maybedoctor???]

Thank you guys so much, your replies have been really helpful! I'm wondering if there is anyway to do neuropsych research without getting a phd in clinical? I know I would have to go the clinical route in order to see patients but if I wanted to do just research could I get there from another degree path?