Education

Psychiatry Residency

The Psychiatry Residency Program at the University of Chicago is dedicated to excellence in graduate medical education, clinical care, and research. We are also dedicated to training the next generation of leaders in psychiatric assessment, treatment, and mental health public policy.  Our GME programs are designed to cultivate caring, compassionate physicians who become lifelong learners always capable of providing the highest level of medical care. The University of Chicago has been known as the teacher of teachers, and our graduates have become leaders in the field of education as well as clinical care.

We provide exemplary training that combines both inpatient and outpatient experiences, caring for some of the country’s most medically complex and challenging patients.

Deborah Spitz, MD

Professor of Adult Psychiatry

 

Zehra Aftab, MD

Assistant Professor of Adult Psychiatry

 

Psychiatry Residency Perspective Videos

Psychiatry Residency (For PGY-1 Residents)

How to Apply:

  • We accept applications through ERAS (Electronic Residency Application Service).
  • We strongly recommend that your application be complete when ERAS opens for programs to review applications.  Please note, we don't not require a Step 2 scores for initial review but we are unable to place anyone on our rank list without a Steo 2 score.
  • All applicants must register with the NRMP (National Resident Matching Program).
  • We do not require or expect that applicants complete an away rotation with us.
  • In your personal statement of your ERAS application please let us know if you have clinical or research interests and if there is a particular faculty you would like to work with and if you have any ties or special interest in the city of Chicago.
  • In ERAS we require three letters of recommendation (LOR).  Of the LOR's one should be from psychiatry and one from medicine or pediatrics. We do not require a Chair's letter for a SLOE (Standard Letter of Evaluation).
  • Psychiatry has 10 signals for 2024/2025 applicants.  We will review signaled applications first but will consider other applicants as well.  Students at the University of Chicago do not have to signal us but should let us know their interest. 
  • We accept for USMLE and COMLEX scores.  There is no minimum score but you must have passed.
  • We begin sending invitations one week after ERAS opens.  We send invitations in waves and will stop by December 1st.  After December 1st we will keep an active wait list an openings.
  • Our interview season begins in mid-October and goes through early January.
  • We do not accept new applications after December 31.
  • If you are an international graduate you must be ECFMG certified when you submit your application.
  • Our interview format is virtual.  We scheduled a day long series of meetings' with 3-4 faculty and a Chief Resident.  In addition, we expect applicants to attend a one hour meeting with our current residents the evening before the interview date.
    Pre and post interview communications with have no effect on ranking.
  • We have an institution sponsored Open House in the summer, and we participate in the psychotherapy fair in September.  Neither are required, but these are opportunities to learn more about our program. We do not have offer a second look after your interview.

Psychiatry Residency (For Transfer Residents)

How to Apply:

  • We require an ERAS (Electronic Residency Application Service).
  • A personal statement should discuss the reason for transfer, and goals in psychiatry training.
  • One of the recommendation letters should be from the program director and document your start and end of training dates, and duration and content of all rotations completed.
  • If you are interested in transferring contact the Education Administrator at btyrpin@bsd.uchicago.edu.

2024-2025 Resident Stipends
PGY-1: $73,015
PGY-2: $77,234
PGY-3: $79,898
PGY-4: $83,530
PGY-5: $87,161

Vacation
All residents receive four weeks of paid vacation leave per year to be scheduled by mutual agreement between the resident, chief resident, service chief, and the Program Director.

Sick Leave
Five days of paid sick leave is granted to residents who are absent from work and unable to perform their assigned duties due to illness.

Offices
PGY-3’s have individual offices and all other residents have group offices and dedicated space to see patients.

Computer Access
Universal Workstations are located throughout the Medical Center, through which residents can access the electronic medical record system, intranet, internet, and other online resources.

Call Frequency
PGY-1 and PGY-2 residents are on call an average of 3 times per month. PGY-1 have graded responsibilities with senior residents in the house until they have met the requirements for increased independence. Third and fourth-year residents have the opportunity for in-house moonlighting including supervision of PGY-1s on call.

Medical Leave
Residents can take four paid leave for medical reasons.  If this is a medical leave due to the birth of a child UC offers six weeks paid parental leave.  

Other Leaves of Absence

Residents may request a personal Leave of Absence from the Program Director who grants such leave in cooperation with Office of Graduate Medical Education. Such a request should be predicated on some unusual and substantial personal situation. In all but rare cases, a leave of absence should not exceed twelve weeks. We also have policies on bereavement and civil leaves.

Educational Meetings
Residents may attend educational meetings at the discretion of the Program Director and relevant service chief. The dates of such meetings must not interfere with good patient care. Excused absence for attending such meetings should not extend beyond the dates of the educational meeting and necessary travel time. Additional days will be considered vacation time and also should be scheduled with the permission of the Program Director.

Benefits
University of Chicago house officers are eligible for a benefits package that includes dental coverage, flexible spending accounts, health insurance coverage, life insurance, long term disability, personal accident insurance, tuition remission for spouses and children, supplemental retirement annuities, and workers' compensation.

Professional Liability Coverage
The Medical Center provides medical malpractice liability coverage for all residents for activities performed in connection with assigned duties as a resident at the University of Chicago and at off-site rotations with prior written approval. The coverage is a composite of self-retained coverage funded by a composite of self-retained coverage funded by a trust fund and purchased excess commercial insurance.

Library Facilities
Residents are granted borrowing privileges at the University of Chicago Libraries, one of the largest libraries in the country with over 10 million volumes. Residents have 24-hour access to The John Crerar Library, the major research library for medicine, and the biological sciences on the University campus, containing 570,000 titles and located adjacent to the Medical Center.

Take a virtual tour of our medical center

Learn about Hyde Park and the city of Chicago

Access GME resources such as a sample contract, stipend information, and handbooks

Residency Instagram

Graduate Medical Education (GME) Website

The University of Chicago Residency Training Program in Psychiatry offers a broad range of courses while focusing in particular on several domains of learning within psychiatry:

  • Psychopathology and phenomenology
  • Psychopharmacology and somatic treatments
  • Psychotherapy
  • Neuroscience
  • Research

Training in each domain builds from one year to the next, as each year residents take courses that relate to each domain. Integration among the domains is a major task of psychiatric education and takes place within case conferences, supervision, and individual courses.

The Psychopathology and Phenomenology sequence begins in the PGY-1 year courses focused on an introduction to Psychopathology and Phenomenology, Emergency Psychiatry, and Addictions. Reinforcement of these concepts occurs during Case Conferences on the Inpatient Units and the Consultation/Liaison-Emergency Room Case Conference attended by PGY-1 and PGY-2 residents.  It continues in the PGY-2 year with Developmental Psychiatry, Child Psychopathology, Neuropsychiatry and Geriatric Psychiatry. Further discussion of psychopathology and phenomenology occurs in the general and specialty clinics in PGY-3, and in the PGY-3 forensic psychiatry course.

The Psychopharmacology sequence offers basic psychopharmacology in the PGY-1 year and Psychopharmacology II in the PGY-2 year. Advanced Psychopharmacology is open to all residents but targeted to PGY-3s and 4s, focuses on clinical problem-solving, and integrates non-pharmacologic neuromodulation treatments including ECT, TMS, and DBS. Additional psychopharmacology is taught within specialty clinic settings.

The Neuroscience sequence begins in the PGY-1 year with an Introduction to Neuroanatomy. This is followed by a year-long course spanning parts of PGY-2 and PGY-3 in Neurobiology and Psychiatric Neuroscience.

The Research sequence begins in the PGY-2 year with an introduction to critical thinking and critical reading of the research literature, followed with a course on statistics, and then an introduction to the basic science, translational and clinical research topics and laboratories within the Department. Depending on each residents level of interest in research, there are Clinical Scholar and Research Tracks (described on the Clinical Rotations page). At the end of the PGY-4 year, each resident makes a research presentation to the Department. 

The Psychotherapy sequence begins in the summer of the PGY-2 year and is organized into specialized sequences of courses:

  • supportive psychotherapy—introduced in PGY-2
  • cognitive behavior therapy—introduced at the end of PGY-2 and continuing for six months in PGY-3, including didactics, interactive classroom skills-building sessions and individual and group CBT supervision
  • group therapy—introduced in PGY-3, and augmented by an ongoing process group open to all residents over the course of the entire time of residency
  • family therapy—introduced in PGY-3, with both didactic and supervisory components
  • psychodynamic psychotherapy—introduced in PGY-2 with Introduction Psychotherapies and the two-quarter Psychodynamic Psychotherapy course, continuing in PGY-3 with the Longitudinal Case Conference and Advanced Psychodynamic Theories, and continuing electively in PGY-4 in the Intensive Sequence.

Throughout the four years, residents attend the Clinical Case Conference, CBT Case Conference, and the Interdisciplinary Case Conference, where a variety of psychotherapeutic approaches are discussed.

Courses for all residents

All residents come together on Thursday afternoons for a series of case conferences and seminars. They include the following:

Clinical Case Conference — led by Drs. Tom Kramer and Deborah Spitz, this weekly conference provides a forum for residents to present “problem” cases of all types. Discussion includes diagnostic dilemmas, various psychotherapeutic approaches, transference and countertransference issues, pharmacologic challenges, and other problems residents encounter in treating complex and difficult patients.

Interdisciplinary Case Conference — attended by trainees in psychiatry and psychology and led by interdisciplinary senior faculty, this monthly conference focuses on cases being treated by both residents and trainees in other disciplines. Topics discussed include issues encountered with patients receiving medication and psychotherapy, or individual therapy plus family or couples therapy, from different treatment providers.

CBT Case Conference — led by Dr. Lindsay Brauer and attended by psychology and psychiatry trainees, this seminar considers formulation and treatment issues in cases being treated with cognitive behavior therapy.

Advanced Psychopharmacology and Somatic Treatments — led by Drs. Michael Marcangelo, this weekly conference includes discussions of major psychotropic medication groups, case-based discussions of side effect management and complex pharmacologic approaches to refractory psychiatric disorders of all types. Topics include antidepressants, mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, anxiolytics, sedative-hypnotics, stimulants, and other agents, in adults and child patients. Established and emerging neuromodulation techniques are also included. PGY-3 residents share responsibility for presenting topics and leading discussions.

Journal Club — led by Drs. Jon Grant and Royce Lee, this seminar for all residents critically examines the psychiatric literature.

Cultural Psychiatry — led by Dr. Seeba Anam, this course addresses differences in the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of psychiatric disorders across cultures and sub-cultures.

Residents as Teachers — led by Drs. Deborah Spitz and Michael Marcangelo, this course introduces residents to the principles of bedside teaching and reviews skills in communicating teaching points, giving and receiving feedback, evaluation, and mentorship. The class includes role-playing and other experiential learning techniques.

Departmental Grand Rounds — held throughout the year from September through June. Attended by all faculty and residents, Grand Rounds offers presentations by national and international leaders in the field as well as presentations by our own faculty, residents and other trainees.

Residents’ Process Group — led by Dr. Jeffrey Roth, this group meets 20 times throughout each academic year. Participation is open to all residents.

Inpatient Psychiatry Case Conference — a weekly conference led by Dr. Deborah Spitz and other rotating faculty, a challenging case on the inpatient unit is reviewed in-depth and interviewed by the faculty member, followed by a discussion of the case.

C/L Case Conference - led by Dr. Marie Tobin and the CL Chief Resident, cases from the Consultation/Liaison service, the Emergency Room, and the Child and Adolescent Consultation/Liaison service are discussed and a relevant topic is reviewed by a trainee on one of these services.

PGY-1 Courses

The clinical rotations and course curriculum in the PGY-1 year foster the resident’s developing identity as a competent and caring physician, through rotations in medicine, neurology, and inpatient and consultation-liaison psychiatry that offer broad clinical experience, excellent teaching, and appropriate levels of responsibility. PGY-1 didactics begin with a Summer Orientation, designed to introduce basic concepts in patient safety and emergency psychiatry. Every Thursday afternoon, the PGY-1s return to the Department for didactics, including during medicine and neurology rotations. Courses are designed to help integrate the knowledge and skills acquired on medicine and neurology into their future practice of psychiatry.

PSYCHOPATHOLOGY/PHENOMENOLOGY SEQUENCE

  • Emergency Psychiatry — Holly Shiao, M.D. and Marie Tobin, M.D.
  • Addictions - Jon Grant, M.D.

Psychopharmacology Sequence

  • Psychopharmacology I  Royce Lee, M.D.

Neuroscience Sequence

  • Neuropsychiatric Medicine Integration- Holly Shiao, M.D. 

Other Courses

  • Clinical Skills  Deborah Spitz, M.D.
  • Medical Issues in Psychiatric Patients - Erin Zahradnik, M.D.

PGY-2 Courses

The PGY-2 year builds on the PGY-1 experiences in medicine and psychiatry, exposing residents to inpatient psychiatric treatment in academic, public and private settings with more complex, dually diagnosed and medically complex patients. Courses in the PGY-2 year are organized to solidify the resident’s understanding of phenomenology, psychopathology, and psychopharmacology, to build a foundation in neuroscience, and to develop an understanding of diverse approaches to psychotherapy. Residents attend the Research Sequence and familiarize themselves with research resources in the Department.

Psychopathology/Phenomenology Sequence

  • Development and Child Psychopathology — Seeba Anam, M.D. and Child faculty
  • Neuropsychiatry — Shoaib Memon, M.D.
  • Geriatric Psychiatry — Erin Zahradnik, M.D.

Psychopharmacology Sequence

  • Psychopharmacology II — Holly Shiao, M.D.

Neuroscience Sequence

  • Neurobiology I — Royce Lee, M.D.

Research Sequence

  • Introduction to Research; Statistics; and Departmental Research — Kristen Jacobsen, Ph.D.

Psychotherapy Sequence

  • Introduction to Supportive and Psychodynamic Psychotherapies — Deborah Spitz, M.D. and Shoaib Memon, M.D.
  • Psychodynamic Psychotherapy — Allen Kodish, M.D., Shoaib Memon, M.D., and Deborah Spitz, M.D.
  • Introduction to Cognitive Behavior Therapy — Lindsay Brauer, Ph.D.
  • Family Therapy and Supervision- Karam Radwan, M.D. and Khalid Afzal, M.D.

Other Courses:

  • Systems of Care — Daniel Yohanna, M.D.
  • Ethical Issues in Psychiatry — Andrea Mann, D.O.

PGY-3 Courses

The PGY-3 year is an outpatient year designed to enable residents to function more independently and to follow a large number of patients longitudinally, Through a year-long experience in the general psychiatry clinics, subspecialty clinics and sessions set aside to see psychotherapy patients, residents gain a sense of the breadth and depth of psychiatric disorders and their treatment. Courses deepen the resident’s understanding of psychopathology, psychopharmacology, neuroscience, and psychotherapy, and further the resident’s understanding and practical experience of research. Third-year residents collaborate with faculty to develop and present lectures in the Advanced Psychopharmacology conference attended by all residents.

Psychopathology Sequence

  • Forensic Psychiatry — Daniel Yohanna, M.D.

Psychopharmacology Sequence

  • Psychopharmacology Conference — Michael Marcangelo, M.D.

Neuroscience Sequence

  • Neurobiology II — Royce Lee, M.D.
  • Psychiatric Neuroscience — Royce Lee, M.D.

Psychotherapy Sequence

  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy — Lindsay Brauer, Ph.D.
  • Group Psychotherapy — Daniel Fridberg, Ph.D.
  • Longitudinal Case Conference — Deborah Spitz, M.D.
  • Advanced Psychodynamic Theories — Deborah Spitz, M.D.

PGY-4 Courses

In the PGY-4 year, residents solidify administrative and leadership skills, enlarge clinical confidence and autonomy and focus on individual specialized areas of interest. Each resident assumes a Chief Resident position with significant administrative, supervision and teaching components. Each resident completes a research project and makes a presentation to the Department. Residents continue to follow outpatients in a variety of psychotherapeutic modalities and may choose elective clinical experiences in specialized psychotherapies, such as group or family therapy, psychodynamic psychotherapy, or dialectical behavior therapy, to name a few. All residents participate in the ECT service and can choose to spend a greater portion of PGY4 year on the ECT service in order to be eligible to receive a letter certifying advanced training in ECT upon graduation. In conjunction with faculty advisors, each resident develops an individualized schedule for the fourth year that reflects the serious pursuit of particular interests. The year is designed to allow maximum flexibility so that each resident may pursue a meaningful area in depth. Courses reflect the clinical, administrative and research activities of the resident.

  • Research Elective — Emil Coccaro, M.D., Jon Grant, M.D., and other research faculty
  • Intensive Sequence — Harry Trosman, M.D.
  • Electroconvulsive Therapy — TBA
  • Chief Residency Administrative Supervision — individual faculty

University of Chicago -- Block Diagrams of Courses

All Residents
(PGY-1, 2, 3, 4)

Summer

Autumn / Winter / Spring

Residents as Teachers

Clinical Case Conference

Resident Process Group

Resident Process Group

C/L Case Conference

C/L Case Conference

 

CBT Case Conference*

 

Interdisciplinary Case Conference*

 

Advanced Psychopharmacology and Somatic Therapies

*monthly conference

PGY-1

Summer

Autumn

Winter

Spring

Intro to Residency

Patient Safety

Emergency Psychiatry

Phenomenology

Intro to Neuroanatomy

Neurologic Localization

Medical Issues in the Psychiatric Patient

Psychopathology

Psychopharmacology

Psychopharmacology

Psychopharmacology

Addictions

Clinical Skills

Clinical Skills

Clinical Skills

 

PGY-2

Summer

Autumn

Winter

Spring

Intro to Psychotherapy

Intro to Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

Intro to Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

Intro to CBT

Development

Child Psychopathology

Ethics

Family Therapy

Psychopharmacology II

Geriatric Psychiatry

Psychosomatics

Neuropsychiatry

Psychological Testing

Research Statistics

Research Methodology

Neurobiology

Systems of Care

 

 

 

 

PGY-3

Summer

Autumn

Winter

Spring

Group Psychotherapy

Longitudinal Case Conference

Longitudinal Case Conference

Advanced Psychodynamic Therories

Neurobiology

Psychiatric Neuroscience

Psychiatric Neuroscience

CBT Theory and Practice

CBT Group Supervision

Cultural Psychiatry

Forensic Psychiatry

 

PGY-4

Required: Chief Residency with Administrative Supervision

Required: Research Project

Required: Electroconvulsive Therapy Rotation

Elective: Intensive Sequence and readings; teaching and clinical electives arranged individually

PGY-1

The clinical rotations and course curriculum in the PGY-1 year foster the resident’s developing identity as a competent and caring physician, through rotations in medicine, neurology, and psychiatry that offer broad clinical experience, excellent teaching, and appropriate levels of responsibility. In addition, residents begin to develop knowledge and skills in the diagnosis, management, and treatment of severely disturbed and mentally ill inpatients. The PGY-1 year is divided into six months of medicine and neurology, four months of adult inpatient psychiatry, and two months of consult/liaison psychiatry. PGY-1s take call at the University of Chicago while on psychiatry, covering the emergency department and the general hospital for psychiatric emergencies, and providing phone consultation for emergent care issues arising on the University of Chicago inpatient psychiatry service at UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial. All PGY-1s begin the year with direct supervision from senior residents and progress to greater degrees of independence with attending backup always available.

Primary Care and Neurology: All residents spend two months on the inpatient general medicine service. Additionally, most residents select one month on the general medicine consultation service and one month in the adult emergency department at the University of Chicago. Residents spend two months on the neurology services at the University of Chicago. Those residents who have a particular interest in child psychiatry may choose to spend up to two months on pediatrics (one month inpatient, one month Peds ED), and/or one month on the child neurology service at the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital.

Northshore University Hospital, Adult Inpatient Psychiatry: Two months each during PGY-1 and PGY-2 year are spent on the adult inpatient psychiatric service. Located in Evanston, Northshore is a large and outstanding community hospital with strong ties to the University of Chicago. The patient population is economically and diagnostically varied and includes some patients receiving electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).

UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial, Inpatient Psychiatry: Two months each during PGY-1 and PGY-2 year are spent on the adult inpatient psychiatric service. This general psychiatry unit treats acute patients with all major psychiatric disorders, as well as patients with comorbid substance abuse and dependence, and those with some comorbid medical problems. Patients come from the university community including students and staff, from a wide range of communities in the Chicagoland area, and transfers from the University of Chicago emergency department, inpatient medical/surgical, and outpatient psychiatric services.

Consultation/Liaison: Two months each during PGY-1 and PGY-2 year are spent on the CL service at the University of Chicago. The CL service provides psychiatric consultation upon request to hospitalized, adult, medically ill patients. In addition to general consultation, specialist services exist for oncology, transplantation, and neuropsychiatry. The CL team is comprised of CL attendings, a psychosomatic medicine fellow, psychiatry residents, psychology interns, medical students and senior neurology residents and anesthesia pain fellows on a rotating basis. CL residents gain experience in evaluating and managing highly complex medical and surgical patients in a well-supervised teaching service, coupled with the opportunity to participate actively in a multidisciplinary team. To provide a forum for trainees to present and discuss CL and ER cases, a weekly, joint adult and child psychiatry case conference is held. This provides a forum for detailed case discussion and for the presentation of special topics (e.g The Business of CL, Psychotropic Prescribing in Pregnancy, Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Syndromes).

PGY-2

The PGY-2 year builds on the PGY-1 experiences in medicine and psychiatry, exposing residents to inpatient and outpatient psychiatric treatment in academic, public and private settings with more complex, dually diagnosed and medically comorbid patients. Residents spend two months each on inpatient psychiatry at Ingalls Hospital, inpatient psychiatry at Northshore University, and on the CL service at the University of Chicago. Residents also spend two months on each of the following services: University of Chicago Emergency Psychiatric Service, Chemical Dependency at UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial, and Community Psychiatry, an outpatient rotation at Thresholds. PGY-2 residents develop skills as psychiatric educators through increased responsibility for the teaching and supervision of medical students, and through coursework and supervision on education and educational techniques. Residents take call at the University of Chicago with faculty backup by phone.

Chemical Dependency: Residents spend two months on the Chemical Dependency service at UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial, under the direction of Dr. Martin Paisner, where patients are admitted for detoxification from a variety of substances of abuse. Residents participate in groups and individual treatment for addictions, attend sobriety maintenance meetings, become familiar with detoxification protocols, and management of patients with dual diagnoses.

Community Psychiatry: Residents spend two months at Thresholds, one of the nation's largest non-profit providers of mental health services. Thresholds offer case management, education, job training and placement, housing, and operates Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) teams providing services to people with serious and persistent mental illness. Residents evaluate new patients and function as part of a team, providing outreach to people in the community in their homes and on the streets as well as in clinics. One day a week is spent at the community psychiatry clinic at Northshore University.

Emergency Psychiatry: Residents spend two months on our Emergency Psychiatry service under the direction of Drs. Marie Tobin and Holly Shiao. Residents provide consultation to the emergency department for management and recommendations on disposition for psychiatric emergencies.

Outpatients: Residents are expected to treat two to three outpatients per week during the PGY-2 year in weekly psychotherapy. Patients are referred from the University of Chicago student health service, as well as the outpatient clinics and inpatient units at the University of Chicago and UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial. Residents have two hours of individual supervision, provided by faculty within the Department and the Student Counseling Center (SCS) on campus. Residents also rotate through the Continuing Care (Psychosis) Clinic at the University of Chicago which provides diagnostic evaluations and ongoing medication management for patients with severe and persistent mental illness. Many patients also have serious economic and social problems and major needs for rehabilitation services. This clinic works collaboratively with Thresholds and other community resources to support patients' independence.  Several research projects are incorporated into the clinic on the nature and treatment of psychotic disorders.

PGY-3

The PGY-3 year is exclusively an outpatient year. Designed to enable residents to function more independently and to follow a large number of patients longitudinally, PGY-3 provides year-long experience in the general psychiatry clinics, several half-day sessions set aside to see psychotherapy patients, and six-month rotations in subspecialty clinics. Subspecialty clinics include neuropsychiatry, geriatrics, child psychiatry, addictions, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, refractory affective disorders, and several medical/psychiatric clinics including a transplant clinic and a psycho-oncology clinic. Residents provide teaching and supervision for medical students and can participate in internal moonlighting call including providing back-up for PGY-1 residents.

The General Clinics: Adult patients are referred to our clinics from within the University of Chicago system, from inpatient stays on our inpatient psychiatry service, from the surrounding community of Hyde Park where students and faculty live, from the population of hospital and university employees, and from the South Side of Chicago and the greater Northwest Indiana area. Problems vary from complex diagnostic issues to more common affective, anxiety and adjustment disorders. Residents are assigned to one general clinic per week, performing intakes and providing psychiatric follow-up. The clinics are designed to enable residents to pick up a large caseload of patients with varied diagnoses and treatments. Residents have ample opportunity to work collaboratively with psychologists in coordinated treatment. Faculty include Drs. Deborah Spitz and Shoaib Memon.

Specialty Clinics: Residents rotate for six months in a variety of specialty clinics:

  • Child Psychiatry—directed by Drs. Khalid Afzal, Seeba Anam, and Stephanie Lichtor, residents provide diagnostic assessment and treatment for children and adolescents with pervasive developmental disorders, disorders of attention, affective disorders, anxiety disorders, psychosis, and eating disorders.
  • Geriatrics—directed by Dr. Erin Zahradnik, residents evaluate and manage disorders of mood, cognition, and psychosis in the geriatric population at University of Chicago and at the University of Chicago's South Shore Clinic, which offers integrated geriatric medical and psychiatric care.
  • Neuropsychiatry—this clinic treats patients with complex neuropsychiatric problems including movement disorders, neurodegenerative disorders, epilepsy, MS, traumatic brain injury as well as conversion disorders.
  • Anxiety Disorders—directed by Dr. Emil Coccaro and staffed by a psychologist and psychology trainees as well as by residents, this clinic serves patients with severe anxiety disorders, obsessional disorders, panic disorders, and other comorbid psychiatric problems. It offers comprehensive evaluating, pharmacologic treatment, and CBT.
  • Medical/Psychiatry—directed by Drs. Marie Tobin, Holly Shiao, Zehra Aftab, and Michael Marcangelo, who attend on the psychiatric consultation/liaison service at the University of Chicago, these clinics offer evaluation and follow-up to patients seen on the C/L service and other patients with comorbid medical and psychiatric problems. Specialized clinics include Transplant with Dr. Aftab and Psycho-oncology with Drs. Tobin and Shiao.
  • Personality Disorders—directed by Dr. Royce Lee, this clinic offers assessment and treatment to complex patients with personality disorders and often comorbid affective disorders.
  • Refractory Affective Disorders—directed by Dr. Elliot Gershon, this clinic offers highly specialized treatment for patients with severe and refractory unipolar and bipolar disorders. It offers residents the opportunity to use sophisticated psychopharmacologic interventions and gain an understanding of the long-term evolution of severe affective illness.
  • Student Counseling Center (SCS)—under the direction of Dr. Erin Hurst, SCS provides emergency consultation, psychoeducation, psychotherapy, and medication management for undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Chicago.
  • Women's Mental Health--directed by Zehra Aftab, MD, this clinic evaluates and treats women during pregnancy and the postpartum period as well as women with psychiatric disorders that intersect with reproductive issues. 

Outpatients: In addition to patients followed within the general and subspecialty clinics, residents are expected to follow eight hours of outpatients in various modalities of psychotherapy, including psychodynamic psychotherapy, supportive psychotherapy, CBT, combined pharmacologic and psychological treatment, and family therapy. Residents are expected to lead or co-lead at least one group, which may be time-limited and focused on a particular diagnostic issue or problem, or open-ended. Residents receive two and a half hours per week of individual supervision, and additional supervision is available for family and marital cases as well as individual cases for those who request it.

PGY-4

In the PGY-4 year, residents solidify administrative and leadership skills, enlarge clinical confidence and autonomy and focus on individual specialized areas of interest. Each resident assumes a Chief Resident position with significant administrative, supervision and teaching components. Each resident completes a research project and makes a presentation to the Department. Residents continue to follow outpatients in a variety of psychotherapeutic modalities and may choose elective clinical experiences in specialized psychotherapies, such as group or family therapy, psychodynamic psychotherapy, or dialectical behavior therapy, to name a few. All residents gain experience on our Electroconvulsive Therapy service. In conjunction with faculty advisors, each resident develops an individualized schedule for the fourth year that reflects the serious pursuit of particular interests. Some residents choose to focus on research, some emphasize clinical experiences, others assume increased teaching responsibility. The year is designed to allow maximum flexibility so that each resident may pursue a meaningful area in depth.

Chief Residencies: Two PGY-4s serve as Administrative Chief residents, leading Residents Meeting and working closely with the Residency Training Directors on administrative issues. Chief residents on the inpatient units, the consultation/liaison service, outpatient clinics, and the emergency service at the University of Chicago provide administrative leadership, teaching and supervision for medical students and junior residents on those services, leading case conferences and designing and teaching specialized courses. There is flexibility in each of these roles, and specific duties may be negotiated with the Program Director, based on the resident’s interests; for example, one fourth-year resident devised a chief residency in Medical Student Education, helping to redesign the psychiatry clerkship and focus on recruitment of medical students into psychiatry.

Research: Under the supervision of faculty research mentors and with the guidance of the Research Seminar led by Dr. Kristen Jacobsen, each resident completes a research project in collaboration with one of several research groups in the Department. The resident presents the research to the Department in June of the PGY-4 year. Some residents choose to spend a large portion of the PGY-4 year on larger research projects, and many have published their work and/or presented at national meetings.

Forensic Psychiatry: All residents evaluate and write up a forensic case under the direction of one of the Department’s forensic psychiatrists, Drs. Daniel Yohanna, Jon Grant, Caroline Shima, and Sandy Finkel.

Electroconvulsive Therapy: Residents gain experience in the outpatient evaluation of patients referred for ECT, the indications and relative contraindications for ECT, the informed consent process, the delivery of treatment and ongoing monitoring of psychiatric, cognitive and medical symptoms during acute course and maintenance phases of ECT. For interested residents, an extended elective experience in ECT, leading to eligibility for certification of advanced training in ECT upon graduation, is available.

Elective Clinical Experiences:

Specialty Clinics: Resident can choose to spend six months in any of the above specialty clinics that they didn't experience in PGY-3.

Intensive Sequence Elective: In conjunction with a course which reviews classic psychoanalytic theory under the direction of Dr. Harry Trosman, a senior psychoanalyst, the resident treats 2-3 patients for one year in intensive (two or three times per week) psychotherapy, with supervision provided by psychoanalysts affiliated with the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis.

Family Institute Elective: Residents can take courses and evaluate and treat families at the Family Institute in Downtown Chicago.

Women's Mental Health: Residents can elect an outpatient experience and reading course focused on Women's Mental Health.

Other Electives: Clinical, research, and educational electives are arranged individually.

University of Chicago -- Block Diagrams of Clinical Rotations

PGY-1

6-months Medicine and Neurology (all at U of C)

6-months Psychiatry

2-months Adult Neurology or 
1-month each Adult and Pediatric Neurology

2-months Consult Liaison Psychiatry, U of C

2-months Inpatient Medicine

2-months Inpatient Psychiatry,
U of C Service at Ingalls Hospital

1-month Emergency Medicine (Adult or Peds)

1-month Consult Medicine or 1-month Inpatient Pediatrics

2-months Inpatient Psychiatry, NorthShore University Health System Evanston

 

PGY-2

4 Months

2 Months

2 Months

2 Months

2 Months

2-months Inpatient Psychiatry NorthShore University Health System Evanston

2-months Inpatient Psychiatry U of C Service at Ingalls Hospital

Chemical Dependency InpatientUChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial

Emergency Psychiatry
U of C

Community Psychiatry--NorthShore Clinic, Thresholds Assertive Community Treatment Team, and U of C Population Mgmt

2-months Consult Liaison Psychiatry U of C

6-months U of C MAC Chronic Care Clinics, plus 2-3 individual psychotherapy outpatients for the year
PGY-1 and -2 ON CALL—cover Adult and Child ER and CL Services

PGY-3

12 Months U of C Outpatient Clinics

12 Months Adult General Clinics

12 Months Child Psychiatry Clinics

 6 months Required Clinics

  •   Geriatrics
  •   One Med/ Psych Clinic
       * General Med / Psych
       * Transplant
       * Psycho-oncology

 6 months Elective Specialty Clinics

  • Neuropsychiatry
  • Personality Disorders
  • Anxiety Disorders
  • Addictions
  • Refractory Affective Disorders
  • Student Counseling
  • Memory Clinic
  • Women's Mental Health
  • 8 hours weekly of ongoing psychotherapy patients including CBT, psychodynamic, supportive psychotherapy, and group therapy, plus 2.5 hours of individual supervision.
  • PGY-3 or PGY-4, evaluate and write up one forensic case under faculty supervision
  • Optional Research Track--do 4 clinics/6 month block instead of 5 clinics, use the extra half-day for research for the year, and do an additional clinic in PGY-4.

PGY-4

12 Months

Required:  Administrative Psychiatry Experience
Chief Residency – Overall Chief at U of C, Service Chiefs on Inpatient Units (NorthShore or Ingalls), Consultation Liaison, Emergency Psychiatry, Outpatient Clinics

Required:  Research in Psychiatry
Research project in clinical or basic science with Department Faculty with a presentation of the research to the Department
Elective:  Resident may spend up to 75% time doing research

Required:  Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) rotation
Participate for 1-2 months in pre-ECT evaluations and 3x/wk treatments
Elective: 3-month rotation on ECT service to gain eligibility for certification in ECT competency upon graduation

Elective:  Outpatient Psychiatry
½ day or more per week in clinic, and 8-10 hours a week of ongoing psychotherapy with supervision may see 2-3 patients 2-3 times per week in intensive psychodynamic psychotherapy as part of the Intensive Sequence Course

Other Electives:
Student Counseling Service at the U of C
Rotations in Sleep Medicine, Geriatric Medicine, Pain Clinics at the U of C
Women’s Mental Health
Forensic Psychiatry
Other electives may be arranged in consultation with the Program Director and an individual Faculty members

Elective Institutional Fellowships:

  1. MERITS Fellowship (Medical Education Research, Innovation, Teaching, and Scholarship) focusing on research in medical education, taught by medical educators throughout the University of Chicago Medicine, with a research project
  2. MacLean Center for Medical Ethics summer readings in medical ethics, weekly ethics conferences throughout the year, 1-2 months on the Ethics Consult Service at the U of C, with a research project

Goals and Objectives