What does a psychiatrist do?
The term “psychiatry” takes us to the images and associations like Sigmund Freud’s couch, someone’s head attached to a lot of wires and “getting shocks”, the term “mental person”. These images and associations might make us feel as if psychiatry is vague, mysterious, imprecise and has mindless coercion.
So what is Psychiatry?
It is the branch of medicine that focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses. The primary purposes of psychiatry treatment as a discipline within medicine are:
Who can become a psychiatrist?
To become a clinical psychiatrist, one has to complete graduation in the Science stream. Then take an all-India level entrance exam. This is followed by a degree in medicine – MBBS and specialization in psychiatry – MD Psychiatry/Diploma in Psychiatric Medicine.
How Will A Psychiatrist Help You?
A psychiatrist is a medical doctor who specializes in the mental health field – focusing on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of mental, behavioral, and emotional disorders.
When you visit a psychiatrist or opt for online psychiatric services, they will listen to your symptomatic problems based on which they may order a full range of medical laboratory and psychological tests. The results of these tests, when combined with discussions with you, help them to provide a picture of your physical and mental state.
The educational and clinical training of clinical psychiatrists helps them understand the relationship between emotional and other medical illnesses and the relationships with genetics and family history. This helps them evaluate medical and psychological data to come up with a diagnosis and work with patients to develop treatment plans.
In short, prescribed psychiatrist treatment includes medications along with some type of therapy for our mental, behavioral, and emotional disorders. There are various mental illnesses that a psychiatrist can help with (including but not limited to):
What treatments do psychiatrists use?
Psychiatrist treatment usually includes medicines for mental health disorders. They also regularly monitor the patient’s response to the drug and change the prescription as the person’s symptoms improve or in response to side-effects.
Classes of medications that psychiatrists typically prescribe include:
Psychiatrists and their patients work closely together to understand a medication’s effect on the individual. The risks, benefits, side effects, and outcomes require an ongoing evaluation by both the patient and the psychiatrist.
Besides prescribing medications, many psychiatrists also offer patients psychotherapy counseling and other forms of treatment with proper training, such as behavior modification, EMDR therapy, and desensitization therapy for phobias.
How much does a psychiatrist cost?
Mental health in India is not prioritized. We do not hesitate to go to a general physician or a cardiac doctor, but we hesitate to go to a psychiatrist. This adds to the clinical burden of mental health and hence the costs for psychiatrists can seem to be on the higher end.
The cost may also be adjusted according to the frequency of sessions, which in turn can be increased or reduced depending on if the patient is experiencing immediate crises.
A psychiatrist can charge from Rs. 1500/- to Rs. 3000/- per session.