Psychiatrists diagnose, treat and attempt to prevent mental health conditions, though unlike psychologists or counsellors, you have to be a fully trained medical doctor before you can diversify into psychiatry. This means that as well as offering talking treatments, like therapy, they can prescribe medication that is needed by the patient. You will usually be referred to see a psychiatrist by your GP or family doctor, if they have been unable to find out what is wrong through conventional tests or treatment.

What can psychiatrists treat?

Psychiatrists can treat a wide range of mental health conditions, such as anxieties and obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, eating disorders and even serious conditions, like schizophrenia. Because a psychiatrist can also prescribe medicine, which might be essential in the early part of a patient’s treatment, it can usually be more suitable to send a patient with a potentially serious mental health condition to a psychiatrist rather than a psychologist or counsellor. Psychiatrists usually specialise in one particular field, such as childhood or adolescent conditions, or geriatric care.

Appointment with a psychiatrist

When you are first referred to a psychiatrist, the first few sessions will be rather like seeing a therapist or counsellor, with the doctor asking you questions about your condition and your life. They may even carry out medical tests, such as blood tests or other scans to rule out physical causes for your mental health problems.

Once they have made a diagnosis, they will decide if you need some medication, as well as other therapies, or if you can be treated just by psychotherapy, or talking to a counsellor about your problems. They can refer you to other health professionals in the community for this treatment, or they might recommend that you are visited at home by a psychiatric nurse, who can make sure that you are living in safe environment.

If there are concerns that you may harm yourself or someone else, you may have to spend time in a psychiatric hospital, but these days most people with mental health conditions never need to be admitted as an in-patient. The aim of modern psychiatric care is to encourage people with psychiatric problems to live as normal a life as possible, within the wider community, but with help and support from medical professionals. Once you have been diagnosed as having a mental health problem by a psychiatrist, it will be much easier for you to get the help you need.