ABPN Psychiatry study plan

Draw from memory sagittal and axial brain diagrams labeling at least 30 structures with their psychiatric relevance.

Build a neurotransmitter reference table covering dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, GABA, glutamate, acetylcholine, and histamine with pathways, receptor subtypes, and clinical correlations.

Explain the HPA axis feedback loop and predict mood, sleep, and cognitive consequences of glucocorticoid excess and deficiency.

Interpret normal and abnormal EEG patterns, NREM/REM sleep architecture, and structural/functional imaging findings in schizophrenia, mood disorders, and dementia.

Describe the neurobiology of reward, fear extinction, and memory consolidation and link each to a specific psychiatric symptom cluster.

Trace mechanism of action, metabolism, and interaction profile for antidepressants, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, and benzodiazepines.

Apply pharmacokinetic concepts (CYP450 inhibition/induction, half-life, steady state, linear vs nonlinear kinetics) to 10 clinical scenarios.

Summarize heritability, GWAS, epigenetic, and pharmacogenomic findings for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, and autism spectrum disorder.

Relate developmental neurobiology (synaptic pruning, myelination, critical periods) to typical ages of illness onset.

Explain classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning and map each to exposure therapy, contingency management, and modeling-based interventions.

Outline Piaget, Erikson, and attachment (Ainsworth) stages and match each disruption pattern to a plausible adult presentation.

Compute and interpret incidence, prevalence, relative risk, odds ratio, sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value from supplied numbers.

Apply the biopsychosocial and diathesis-stress models to construct two written case formulations.

Identify cultural, socioeconomic, and adverse-childhood-experience factors that shape symptom expression, help-seeking, and stigma.

Compare normal grief, adjustment reactions, and pathological responses using developmental and cultural frames.

Recite DSM-5-TR criteria, duration thresholds, and specifiers for the highest-yield psychotic, mood, anxiety, trauma, substance, neurocognitive, and personality disorders.

Distinguish at least five differentials for each of 15 common clinical presentations using a structured rule-out checklist.

Perform and document a complete mental status examination with every element explicitly addressed in a standardized format.

Select and interpret the correct screening or rating instrument (PHQ-9, GAD-7, YMRS, PANSS, MoCA, C-SSRS) for a given presentation.

Evaluate medical and substance-induced mimics (thyroid disease, B12 deficiency, delirium, sleep apnea, intoxication/withdrawal) in the diagnostic workup.

Construct titration and monitoring plans (baseline labs, ECG, metabolic parameters, lithium levels, clozapine ANC) for each major drug class.

Recognize and manage EPS, neuroleptic malignant syndrome, serotonin syndrome, metabolic syndrome, hyponatremia, and QT prolongation in stepwise order.

Compare indications, efficacy, contraindications, and consent requirements for ECT, TMS, ketamine/esketamine, VNS, and light therapy.

Apply antipsychotic metabolic monitoring standards and pregnancy/lactation risk-benefit reasoning to four cases.

Justify polypharmacy versus switching or augmentation strategies using evidence and guideline sequencing.

Differentiate CBT, DBT, psychodynamic therapy, IPT, ACT, and motivational interviewing by mechanism, target, and evidence base.

Match therapy modality and level of evidence to specific disorders across at least 12 scenarios.

Describe indications and contraindications for group, couples/family, and milieu therapies.

Assess suicide risk with a structured tool and document a complete safety plan including means restriction.

Apply informed consent, confidentiality limits, capacity determination, and involuntary-commitment criteria to ten written scenarios.

Explain PDSA cycles, root-cause analysis, and failure-mode analysis and apply one framework to a hypothetical clinical error.

Identify mandatory reporting and disclosure obligations for child and elder abuse, impaired colleagues, medical errors, and safety events.

Apply autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice to capacity, guardianship, research ethics, and boundary-crossing dilemmas.

Describe documentation, billing, telehealth, and systems-based practice requirements relevant to psychiatric care.

Analyze implicit bias and disparities in access and outcomes and propose concrete mitigation strategies.

Complete two timed full-length mixed practice examinations under exam conditions.

Review every incorrect item to its root cause (knowledge gap, misread stem, or reasoning error) and categorize by domain.

Re-drill the three weakest domains identified by practice-exam analytics until error rates fall below 20%.

Reconstruct from memory the highest-yield tables: drug monitoring, DSM criteria, developmental milestones, and ethics principles.

Assemble a one-page day-before summary sheet restricted to facts repeatedly missed.