Psychiatry

Psychiatry is the branch of medicine that diagnoses, treats, and studies mental illness and behavioral conditions. While all physicians will encounter patients with mental illnesses and any of them may treat it, psychiatrists specialize in these areas, being more extensively trained in the differential diagnosis (distinguishing various forms) and treatment of mental illness and are professionally required to keep up to date on the newest developments in the field of mental illness. Additionally psychologists, nurse practitioners, and social workers can provide psychiatric care though of these only the nurse practitioners may prescribe medication.

Professional requirements

In the United States, psychiatrists and Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners are board certified as specialists in their field. After completing four years of medical school, physicians will practice as psychiatry residents for four years. After completing their training, psychiatrists take written and then oral board examinations, each of which has a failure rate that approaches 50%, before becoming board certified. In the United Kingdom, people work as a senior house officer (SHO) in psychiatry for 2-3 years while sitting postgraduate exams, after which they may apply for a specialist registrar post, which may be in any one of several areas of specialisation within psychiatry. In other countries, similar rules usually apply.

Related Topics:
United States - United Kingdom - Senior house officer

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Some psychiatrists specialize in helping certain age groups; child and adolescent psychiatrists work with children and teenagers in addressing psychological problems. Those who work with the elderly are called geriatric psychiatrists, or in the UK, psychogeriatricians Those who practice psychiatry in the workplace are called industrial psychiatrists (this is a term used in the US but not the UK); those working in the courtroom and reporting to the judge and jury (in both criminal and civil court cases) are forensics psychiatrists. Forensic psychiatrists also treat mentally disordered offenders and other patients whose condition is such that they have to be treated in secure units.

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In the UK there are several different areas of specialisation which one may train in as a specialist registrar (the 3-4 final years of training required before becoming a senior doctor or consultant). They are: general adult psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry, psychogeriatrics, forensic psychiatry, psychotherapy, and drugs and alcohol. After this period as a specialist registrar, one has to be approved by the Royal College of Psychiatrists as an approved specialist in the chosen field before going on to apply for a consultant post in that field.

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