Psychiatry
Psychiatrists are doctors who look after patients with mental health problems.
They assess patients, make diagnoses, they may investigate medical problems, offer advice, and recommend different treatments including medication, counselling or other life style interventions.
What is Psychiatry?
Psychiatry is the branch of medicine which is concerned with the understanding, assessment, diagnosis and treatment of disorders of the mind. These disorders can involve emotions, behaviour, perceptions and cognition (thinking). Psychiatry is one of the most varied, interesting and rewarding specialties in medicine. Because of extensive medical training, the psychiatrist understands the body’s functions and the complex relationship between emotional illness and other medical illness. The psychiatrist is thus the mental health professional and doctor best qualified to distinguish between physical and psychological causes of both mental and physical distress.
What do psychiatrists do?
Psychiatrists are doctors who look after patients with mental health problems. They assess patients, make diagnoses, they may investigate medical problems, offer advice, and recommend different treatments including medication, counselling or other life style interventions. Psychiatrists work within the biopsychosocial model. Symptoms are assessed in the context of a persons’s physical health, their personilty and how that person manages their everyday life, as well as understanding the social stressors occuring in that person’s life. This means that every patient is unique in their presentation. Understanding these many aspects of a patients presentation will help to provide effective treatments. Psychiatrists, as part of their continuing professional development would regularly keep abreast of scientific literature, as well as evidence based guidelines.