Neurology-Psychiatry Combined Residency
We are thrilled to be one of the premier institutions to offer training in combined neurology-psychiatry. We aim to improve the diagnosis and treatment of those living with complex brain disorders through better understanding brain-behavior relationships. Neuropsychiatrists apply a biopsychosocial approach to formulation in addition to utilizing cutting-edge advances in neuroimaging, genetics, biomarkers, and neurophysiology to provide high-quality care to patients.
Our mission is to develop clinicians, educators, and researchers to be leaders in psychiatry, neurology, and their integration. In our experience, many patients have complex medical histories, with comorbidities spanning the fields of neurology and psychiatry. By educating physicians in both fields, we provide a unique and essential role in the future of medicine. Our goal is to foster lifelong learning, clinical excellence, proficiency in education, administrative acumen, and ethical prowess to ensure our graduates are fully prepared not only to succeed but to become leaders who better humankind while pursuing their dreams to the fullest.
- The Basics
What is our program?
An ACGME-accredited, 6-year combined residency program conferring board eligibility in both neurology and psychiatry upon completion.
When was it approved?
In 2016, by the ABPN and ACGME.
Where are we located?
Dallas, Texas, in the medical district just northwest of downtown.
How do we receive applications?
How many new residents do we accept?
1 to 2 per year.
Who are our leaders?
Program Director
Associate Program Director
Associate Program Director
- Careers
The career outlook for dual-boarded neurologist-psychiatrists is excellent. Most who pursue this path stay in academics and often become leaders in academia, prominent researchers, or general or subspecialty clinicians who are able to diagnose and manage brain disorders in an integrated way.
A large percentage continue to practice in both specialties, with many reasons to do so. For example, a significant number of patients with epilepsy are also affected by psychogenic non-epileptic seizures and most often seen by practitioners of both specialties. Individuals with MS have a 50% chance of at least 1 lifetime episode of clinical depression (vs. 17% in the general population) and have a 2 to 3-fold risk of diagnosed bipolar or psychotic disorders. Parkinson disease itself or the medications used for treatment may cause or exacerbate psychiatric symptoms like psychosis. These are only some examples of clinical challenges for either specialty and may be particularly well served by practitioners trained in both disciplines.
Future of the Field
For the complete history of combined neuropsychiatry training and detailed survey information about the practices of US neuropsychiatrists, you may wish to read Benjamin S. Dual Residency Training in Neurology and Psychiatry: History and Current Practice. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2024 Winter;36(1):11-21.
- Program Structure
Our curriculum promotes integrated education and clinical experience for both specialties in tandem. The curriculum's initial design and its evolution over the years are shaped by resident feedback.
PGY-1 comprises a preliminary year with 8 months of in internal medicine, exposure to the emergency department, 2 months of psychiatry, outpatient neurology clinics, and a 1-month Neurology Bootcamp. PGYs 2-6 are dedicated entirely to neurology and psychiatry.
PGYs 2-5 have a mix of both specialties, with more weight in neurology in PGY-2 followed by a cross-taper each year to more time in psychiatry in PGY-5. PGY-6 is split 50/50 in the outpatient setting and resident-designed.
Why is the program combined?
Historically, Neurology and Psychiatry were integrated but grew independently over the past decades. Given our ever-expanding knowledge of the brain, these specialties now appear more connected than ever before (after all, they both originate in the same organ). Many physicians find themselves called to pursue both fields, which is why we are here!
Is a combined program right for me?
Many people have wondered whether they should pursue a combined residency, a neurology residency with behavioral neurology fellowship, or a psychiatry residency followed by a neuropsychiatry fellowship. We hope to help make these distinctions a little clearer.
Combined Neurology/Psychiatry Residency
- 6 years:
- 1 year medicine prelim
- 5 years combined residency
This route creates physicians boarded in both neurology and psychiatry, providing the broadest training. We are often faced with complex patients who have not read nor abide by a particular specialty’s textbook. Our graduates can comprehensively assess patients suffering from any neurologic or psychiatric illness with the lens and tools of both specialties. They are trained in psychopharmacology, psychotherapy, behavioral emergencies, and everything else that other psychiatrists learn, including diagnosis and management of mood disorders, anxiety disorders, psychotic disorders, functional neurologic disorder, etc. In addition, they learn to interpret images of the CNS (e.g., CT, MRI), become proficient in EEGs, and manage neurologic conditions including epilepsy, autoimmune disorders, dementia, movement disorders, headaches, strokes, and other disorders. This training gives the most flexibility for future practice options. Combined graduates may occupy any clinical space and have been shown to occupy a disproportionately high amount of leadership roles, including department chairs.
Our residents spend the final year of training as Chief of the combined program and are responsible for being a liaison for other residents, working with program directors, and ensuring smooth processes (e.g., developing resident schedules, working with chiefs in categorical neurology and psychiatry programs, troubleshooting issues, fielding concerns). They learn administrative skills and prepare for future leadership roles.
Fellowships
UT Southwestern hosts a vast array of fellowships in neurology and psychiatry for residents who decide to pursue post-residency training:
Neurology
- Neuroimmunology and Multiple Sclerosis
- Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychiatry
- Clinical Neurophysiology
- Epilepsy (Adult and Pediatric)
- Headache Medicine
- Movement Disorders
- Neurocritical Care
- Neuromuscular Medicine
- Sleep Medicine
- Vascular Neurology
- Autonomic Disorders
Psychiatry
- Addiction
- Child and Adolescent
- Consultation-Liaison
- Forensic
- Geriatric
- Women's Mental Health
Psychiatry Residency then Neuropsychiatry Fellowship
- 5-6 years:
- 4 years psychiatry residency
- 1-2 years neuropsychiatry fellowship
In this route psychiatrists focus on conditions with neuropsychiatric overlay. The more behavioral aspects of these conditions are addressed symptomatically, but the underlying neurologic disorder is usually diagnosed and managed separately by neurologists.
Neurology Residency then Behavioral Neurology Fellowship
- 5-6 years:
- 1 year medicine prelim
- 3 years neurology residency
- 1-2 years fellowship
In this route, neurologists will focus on cognitive disorders and dementia or have broader clinical experiences depending on the specific fellowship program. Given the frequency of neuropsychiatric manifestations in their population, they become more comfortable with psychopharmacologic management, but still often find themselves consulting a psychiatrist for more complex or refractory cases.
Some Behavioral Neurology/Neuropsychiatry fellowships favor or only accept a neurology or psychiatry trainee, and others are more flexible for either. When it is a 2-year program, this often integrates a year of research to develop research-focused academic careers.
- 6 years:
- Research
We are world renowned for our research prowess, with more Nobel laureates here than at any other US medical school! We receive a very high proportion of NIH funding.
In addition, we have NIH R25 grants in both Neurology and Psychiatry, giving our residents opportunities to engage in research with potential for protected research time.
We help pair residents with appropriate research mentors: example research opportunities.
- Rotation Sites
Our diversity of training sites is a spectacular highlight of our program:
- Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center
- Experience at the VA Medical Center helps residents learn about and interact with an important patient population and a unique EMR and workflow with many formative rotations.
- Parkland Hospital
- In a county hospital, patients are often indigent and uninsured. Parkland hosts substantial rotations for residents, granting exposure to uncommon pathologies and disease presentations along with more common cases that imbue residents with competence to adeptly handle anything that comes their way.
- William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital and Zale Lipshy Pavilion—William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital
- The UT Southwestern System includes the university hospitals, where residents experience tertiary care facilities for privately insured patients. Here, residents see a wide variety of pathologies referred for the highest level of expertise at an academic institution. Zale Lipshy Pavilion, also on the main medical campus, is a site our residents may attend to learn about rehabilitation. This provides valuable insight into how patients recover functioning after neurologic injury.
- Metrocare Services
- Essentially the mental health outpatient arm of the Parkland County system, Metrocare Services is a representation of community medicine where residents get exposure to outpatient psychiatry, including working with the poor and homeless from early stages of residency. Other available opportunities include ACT teams and research. The CEO (John Burruss, M.D.) is an expert in public psychiatry and a frequent guest speaker and lecturer for the psychiatry department.
- Terrell State Hospital
- Terrell State Hospital holds a variety of patients, including treatment-refractory cases and those awaiting psychiatric competency evaluation for trial. Residents work with Dr. Mitchell Dunn, an expert in forensic psychiatry, who teaches about competency evaluation, malpractice suits, and determining what it means to truly be not guilty by reason of insanity while walking residents through individual cases.
- Lew Sterrett County Jail
- Residents spend a month providing psychiatric care to inmates. Standardized procedures are in place with a constant guard and attending physician supervision for safety. Residents interact with a population having unique challenges and see a broad spectrum of humanity.
- Children’s Health Dallas
- Both psychiatry and neurology have several months of required rotations involving children and adolescents proctored by Children's Health Dallas, adjacent to Parkland and UT Southwestern in the Dallas medical district. Children’s is one of the top hospitals in the country for neurology, with active psychiatric inpatient and consult teams.
- Scottish Rite for Children
- Residents will spend one month working with children in outpatient neurology, yet another venue allowing residents the greatest breadth of training experiences.
- Application Process
Application Website
Use the Electronic Residency Application Service
ERAS Application Items
- Curriculum vitae
- Personal statement
- Transcripts from medical school
- Copies of USMLE or COMLEX scores, Steps 1 and 2
- ECFMG certificate (if applicable)
- Three letters of recommendation from faculty supervisors (we strongly recommend to have at least one letter from a neurologist and one from a psychiatrist or, as an alternative, one letter from a faculty supervisor trained in combined neurology and psychiatry)
Other Items Needed
- Medical school diploma
- Visa documentation
Additional Information
We do not have a formal deadline (except for the closing date for ERAS), but decisions on who to interview are typically made early. Thus, we strongly advise students to submit their completed application as soon as able.
All interviews and socials are virtual and take place in one half day. Given there are only four combined neurology-psychiatry residencies, it is not uncommon for applicants to also apply for categorical programs. If a student is also applying for a categorical program at UTSW, this should be made clear as an additional application in ERAS. Please note, if invited for a combined neurology-psychiatry residency interview, this will serve as the interview for either/both respective categorical programs if the student concurrently applied.
We are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and abide by their regulations.
Upon graduation from our training program, we expect all our graduates to seek board certification in both neurology and psychiatry from the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN).
Sample Contracts, Salaries, Benefits
For more information or any questions, please contact our education team:
- Phone: 214-648-7312
- Fax: 214-648-7370
- Faculty and Didactics
We have incredible faculty devoted to teaching in both departments. Besides our program director and associate program directors, additional highlights include:
Since combined residents complete the same rotations and didactics as the respective two categorical programs, applicants are encouraged to read more on their websites:
Psychiatry Residency Program
Neurology Residency ProgramDedicated didactic days are built into both the neurology and psychiatry programs, with psychiatry didactics on Tuesday afternoons and neurology didactics on Thursday afternoons. Combined program residents typically attend the respective lecture of the rotation they are on, or both, when time allows. In addition, every 5th Tuesday afternoon, only combined-residents have a special set of relevant case conference, didactics, and program meetings for constant improvement. We also host a special in-person journal club dinner approximately every other month with rotating invited faculty and trainees.
Grand Rounds are on Wednesdays and include experts from both fields. Hybrid and online sessions are broadcast to Parkland for those who cannot make it to an in-person venue.
Another unique entity at UTSW is the Peter O'Donnell Jr. Brain Institute, which supports collaboration among psychiatry, neurology, neurosurgery, physical medicine and rehabilitation, neuroradiology, bioinformatics, neuropathology, and neuroscience. There is a robust list of ongoing presentations on the most cutting-edge research accessible to our trainees as well.
- Residents
PGY 1
Bilal Haque, M.D.
Undergraduate: University of Texas at Austin
Medical School: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Alexander Woznicki, M.D.
Undergraduate: Wayne State University
Medical School: Oakland University William Beaumont School of MedicinePGY 2
Victor Liaw, M.D.
Undergraduate: University of Texas at Austin
Medical School: University of Texas Southwestern
Emma Wellington, M.D.
Undergraduate: Colgate University Medical
Medical School: George Washington UniversityPGY 3
Jaclyn Hozumi, M.D.
Undergraduate: University of Nevada, Reno
Medical School: University of Nevada, Reno School of MedicinePGY 4
Adam Dinoff, M.D., M.S.
Undergraduate: Queens University
Graduate: University of Toronto
Medical School: New York Medical CollegePGY 5
Enrique Chiu Han, M.D.
Medical School: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
PGY 6
Victoria "Vika" Ragland, M.D.
Undergraduate: University of California Los Angeles
Medical School: University of Texas Rio Grande Valley - Elective for Visiting Medical Students
The Neuropsychiatry Visiting Elective introduces students to several clinical settings at the interface of neurology and psychiatry. Students train with specialists in neuropsychiatry, behavioral neurology, movement disorders, neuroimmunology, epileptology, and neuropsychology. They learn about the diagnosis and treatment of patients living with Alzheimer’s, frontotemporal dementias, Lewy body diseases, focal and generalized epilepsy, demyelinating diseases, autoimmune encephalitides, traumatic brain injuries, neurodevelopmental disorders, and functional neurological disorders, to name a few. Students rotate through outpatient clinics and our state-of-the-art epilepsy monitoring unit as well.
Students who are interested in participating in this elective are invited to contact Dr. Chadrick Lane (chadrick.lane@utsouthwestern.edu) and Dr. Ashley Woolbert (ashley.woolbert@utsouthwestern.edu) to learn more about our medical student 4th-year elective. The application process is through the Association of American Medical Colleges:
More details: Visiting Medical Students: Student Support Services - UT Southwestern, Dallas, TX
