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What is Psychiatry?

Psychiatry deals with the prevention, the assessment of and diagnosis of mental illness, disorders and emotional or behavioral disorders, the rehabilitation of the mind and the treatment of these illnesses and disorders. The goal of those who practice psychiatry is to bring relief to those who suffer from the symptoms associated with mental disorders and to bring about some improvement in their mental well-being. In the U.S.A., psychiatrists are doctors of medicine (M.D.) who work in the field of psychiatry and are usually found working in hospitals, clinics or medical offices. Their patients come to them on a voluntary or involuntary basis.

When dealing with their patients psychiatrists may take different approaches including medical, biological, psychological, and also social/cultural. The treatment of patients may take the form of medications, psychotherapy or a combination. Treatment may be physiological involving the use of drugs to influence neurotransmitter functioning within the brain or electroconvulsive treatment. Psychological treatment may involve psychoanalysis, psychodynamic psychotherapy, desensitization, group therapy, family therapy, individual therapy, and also assertiveness training.

Recovery is usually the most to be hoped for as psychiatric illnesses rarely have a cure. Some psychiatric illnesses have minor symptoms and last only a short time while others have chronic (long-term) conditions that usually have a significant impact on the quality of life that the patient can expect to have, making long-term or life-long treatment necessary. No two psychiatric patients can expect the same degree of treatment effectiveness because there are so many variables involved in treatment.

While being treated by a psychiatrist patients may be seen in outpatient care at a clinic or office, or as an in-patient in a hospital. Patients may suffer from any number of different disorders including: substance dependence or abuse, mood disorders such as depression or bipolar disorder and also psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder or they may suffer from anxiety disorder such as post-traumatic stress disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorder. There are personality disorders that are seen by psychiatrists like borderline personality disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, avoidant personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder.

Psychiatry is probably the oldest of the medical specialties being more than 150 years old. The signs and symptoms that psychiatrists treat all deal with the activity of the brain such as: anxiety, appetite drives, attention, consciousness, creativity, emotion, executive functions, fear, impulse control, imagination, introspection, language, memory, mood, pleasure, and also sensory perception. Psychiatry explores how these activities of the mind and the way that the disruption of their normal pathways leads to mental illnesses and disorders. As you can see by the list of the activities of the brain the business of treating disruption of the normal pattern of activity is very important work indeed. The basic need of humans to be able to function in society rests on the ability of each person's mind to function well. Therefore psychiatry and those who practice it are important to society.