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Undergraduate Neuroscience Majors: A Missed Opportunity for Psychiatry Workforce Development

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Abstract

Objective

This study sought to determine whether and to what extent medical students with an undergraduate college major in neuroscience, relative to other college majors, pursue psychiatry relative to other brain-based specialties (neurology and neurosurgery) and internal medicine.

Methods

The authors analyzed data from AAMC matriculation and graduation surveys for all students who graduated from US medical schools in 2013 and 2014 (n = 29,714). Students who majored in neuroscience, psychology, and biology were compared to all other students in terms of their specialty choice at both time points. For each major, the authors determined rates of specialty choice of psychiatry, neurology, neurosurgery, and, for comparison, internal medicine. This study employed Chi-square statistic to compare odds of various specialty choices among different majors.

Results

Among medical students with an undergraduate neuroscience major (3.5% of all medical students), only 2.3% preferred psychiatry at matriculation, compared to 21.5% who chose neurology, 13.1% neurosurgery, and 11% internal medicine. By graduation, psychiatry specialty choice increased to 5.1% among neuroscience majors while choice of neurology and neurosurgery declined. Psychology majors (OR = 3.16, 95% CI 2.60–4.47) but not neuroscience majors (OR 1.28, 0.92–1.77) were more likely than their peers to choose psychiatry.

Conclusions

Psychiatry struggles to attract neuroscience majors to the specialty. This missed opportunity is an obstacle to developing the neuroscience literacy of the workforce and jeopardizes the neuroscientific future of our field. Several potential strategies to address the recruitment challenges exist.

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Acknowledgements

This paper is part of a research collaboration between the authors and Drs. John Spollen and D. Keith Williams from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. We would like to thank the staff at the AAMC for their assistance with data set acquisition and refinement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    Matthew N. Goldenberg & John H. Krystal

Authors
  1. Matthew N. Goldenberg
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  2. John H. Krystal
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matthew N. Goldenberg.

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Funding Information

Dr. Krystal is supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Science grant 1UH2TR000960-01, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Center grant P50AA12870, the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation grant UL1 RR024139, and the Department of Veterans Affairs through its support for the VA National Center for PTSD.

Ethical Considerations

Use of this anonymized AAMC data for the study of medical student career choice was granted IRB exemption by the Yale University Human Subjects Committee.

Disclosures

Neither Dr. Goldenberg nor Dr. Krystal has actual or potential conflicts of interest in relation to this manuscript.

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Goldenberg, M.N., Krystal, J.H. Undergraduate Neuroscience Majors: A Missed Opportunity for Psychiatry Workforce Development. Acad Psychiatry 41, 239–242 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-017-0670-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-017-0670-z

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