Child and adolescent psychiatry, psychogeriatrics (psychiatry of old age), forensic psychiatry (concerned with legal, compensation and criminal cases), psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. Psychiatrists also act as consultants in drug and alcohol programs and to community services. Within hospitals they are commonly involved in liaison with other areas of medicine and surgery, for example as consultants to pain clinics.
Occassionally a psychiatrist will order blood tests or a CT scan to ensure there is no physical or medical disorder masquerading as a psychiatric illness.
The various treatment options offered by psychiatrists vary. Treatment can be offered as an inpatient or an outpatient. Treatment may be physical, psychological or with medications. More often than not a combination of treatment options is used. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
Psychiatrists tend to spend a great deal of time talking with their patients. Firstly assessing them and then giving various forms of psychological support.
The mental state examination is the “examination of the functioning of the mind”. Through discussing various things with patients psychiatrists will build a picture of how a person’s mind is working, whether there is a psychiatric problem and what the best treatment would be.
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