How Does Psychiatry Help a Patient?

Features

The psychiatrist-patient interaction starts with a comprehensive assessment of the patient that includes a mental status examination and a case history. A baseline behavioral profile is established, from which the psychiatrist can determine what form of treatment will be most effective. In some cases a physical exam, psychological testing, and/or brain scans may be administered to better determine the patient's status.

From thereon, the psychiatrist addresses issues introduced by the patient using verbal and nonverbal treatment approaches in an attempt to redirect the patient's mental disorientation towards a more functional status. Depending on the severity of the patient's disorder, medications may be administered in order to bring the patient to a more communicative state of mind.

History

Since its beginnings, psychiatric treatment modalities have progressed from a confinement-supervision model to a more community-based treatment approach. Prior to the first century B.C., mental illness was thought to have originated in the supernatural realm. Spirits and demons were seen as the forces behind mental disorder. Exorcisms and the casting out of demons were the first applied treatment approaches.

Psychiatric hospitals came into being at around the eighth century A.D. in the middle eastern regions of Baghdad, Fes and Cairo. Treatment approaches were more along the lines of clinical observation rather than religious intervention.

A possible connection between mental disorders and physiological causes was first identified by Avicenna, a Persian physician in the eleventh century. Psychiatric hospitals became more institutional in purpose, seeking only to confine and supervise the mentally ill population.

By the twentieth century, psychiatric treatment methods took on a more interdisciplinary approach, where the patient's physical, emotional and mental status were factored in when drawing up a treatment method. Patients played a more active role in their treatment process. Confinement and supervision became a last resort, and the patient-doctor relationship began.

Benefits

The role of psychiatrist is seen as one of a liaison between the mentally disturbed individual and the medical profession. Though less factual-based than medical diagnoses and treatment, psychiatrists continue to delve further into the physiological origins of mental illness through research and observation.

The role of psychotherapy in a patient's life is oftentimes the only context in which a person suffering from a mental disorder can discuss his experience. The psychiatrist provides a means of reflection for the patient, thereby making the illogical aspects of the mental disorder become clearer as the patient-doctor relationship matures.

Where physiological causes are apparent, medications administered are meant to provide the patient a more realistic--and less subjective--take on reality.

Types

Being the interdisciplinary approach that it is, psychiatry has branched out into several sub-specialties, some of which include forensic psychiatry, geriatric and biological psychiatry, military psychiatry, social psychiatry and neuropsychiatry.

Each sub-specialty approaches their patient from within the context of that patient's life experiences and overall mental and physical status. Yet, in spite all the many variations within the field, all sub-specialties are held accountable to a code of ethics under the World Psychiatric Association.

Risk Factors

With the advent of the twentieth century, the field of psychiatry has undergone continuous scrutiny by an anti-psychiatry movement. The increased use of prescribed medications, laboratory testing and electric shock treatment called into question the psychiatrist's true intent, and actual concern for her patients. Patient advocates contended that prescription medications were forced on patients who resided within a psychiatric institution. Advocates also expressed concern regarding a psychiatrist's labeling of a patient as non-compliant, and as lacking in insight when the psychiatrist's treatment method was called into question by the patient.

Another issue causing concern was the lack of diagnostic consistency in patient diagnoses. As a result of this particular issue, psychiatrists are now required to base all diagnostic criteria according to a standardized manual called The Diagnostic And Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This manual is updated on a yearly basis to reflect research findings and changes in the psychiatric treatment process.

During the latter half of the twentieth century, the practice of administering medications came under question by law officials and policymakers. Concerns centered around the close-knit relationship that had developed between psychiatrists and the pharmaceutical industry. As such, the pharmaceutical industry was seen as playing to large a part in the creation and implementation of mental health policies.

Resources

• American Psychiatric Association
• World Federation for Mental Health