What Do Psychiatrists Do?

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The profession of psychiatry has a bit of an aura of mystery around it. What do the men and women of this profession actually do every day?

Psychiatrists first train as medical doctors, although their work involves human thinking, emotions, and behavior. The fact that psychiatrists work with these less tangible areas of human experiences perhaps makes their work seem more mysterious than a regular medical doctor dealing with a physical disease.

Scientific discoveries in recent decades have broadened our understanding of mental health disorders, and we now know that thought, emotion, and behavior are rooted in the processes of the brain and nervous system. Disorders of thought, emotion, and behavior can often be treated with medications and a broad range of other psychotherapy treatment options.

In essence, a psychiatrist’s job is to evaluate people for mental disorders, offer a diagnosis, and set out a treatment plan for the patient’s benefit. In some cases, treatment means a total recovery from the problem. For others, effective management of symptoms is the goal.

Psychiatrists can utilize all types of medical tests and lab work to rule out physical diseases as the cause of the patient’s symptoms, and they can prescribe medications.
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A psychiatrist’s advanced training in genetics and their understanding of family medical history allows them to provide a comprehensive evaluation of all factors involved in a patient’s condition. 
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The Day to Day Work of a Psychiatrist

Psychiatrists work in private practices, mental health clinics, hospitals, prisons, rehabilitation centers, nursing homes, and research settings at universities. Many also practice online psychiatry and see patients through a phone or computer. A psychiatrist’s daily work depends on where they work.

Most psychiatrists have regular appointments with clients. Psychiatrists evaluate new patients to determine their diagnosis.  The evaluation may require medical tests like blood tests, x-rays, or ct-scans to see if a physical disease such as a brain tumor or neurological disorder underlies the person’s mental health symptoms.

A person whose mental health problems are arising from a physical disease may still need the help of a psychiatrist. For example, people with severe, chronic conditions often need medications for anxiety and depression, and prescribing and monitoring the use of these medications is one job of a psychiatrist.

When psychiatrists use medications to treat mental conditions, a psychiatrist’s job includes regularly monitoring the patient’s response to the drug and changing the prescription as the person’s symptoms improve or in response to side-effects.

Psychiatrists and their patients must work closely together to understand a medication’s effect on that person. The risks, benefits, side-effects, and outcomes require on-going evaluations by both the patient and the psychiatrist.

Besides prescribing medication, many psychiatrists also offer patients psychotherapy counseling and other forms of treatment such as behavior modification, EMDR therapy, and desensitization therapy for phobias.
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People who make the best psychiatrists are those with a high degree of empathy and patience.  They should be great at listening and communicating compassionately to a broad range of people.