The fields of neurology and psychiatry used to be the one and same medical specialty until the turn of the 20th century when the two fields separated probably more due to political than scientific reasons. As the Freudian psychoanalysts highjacked psychiatry the fields became more and more estranged from each other only hurting the patients. Nowadays the many innocent patients fall between the cracks as neither specialty wants to care the brain conditions that often involve both the brain matter and the mind. This artificial academic dichotomy has exacerbated the current shortage of neurologists and psychiatrists resulting in unprecedented crisis in access to care with unacceptable waiting times for people to see neuroscience specialists. It would not be an extraordinary leep of effort to unite the two long lost cousins since they already study and treat the same organ system, the brain. What I am proposing is that all residents graduating from Neuroscience training would be able to diagnose and treat the most common conditions inflicting the nervous system such as headaches, depression, bipolar disorder, seizures, neuropathy, anxiety, Parkinson disease, essential tremor, restless legs, stroke and dementia. This would revolutionalize the field of neuroscience by consolidating the departments and providers resulting in great savings in the cost and improvement in overall quality of and access to patient care.
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