my last post touched a bit on psychiatry (or was it psychology?) and it reminded me of when i asked a pyschologist (or was he psychiatrist?) what made psychology and psychiatry different. mind he was also a philosopher, so his answer was lengthy and mixed in with it was probably the meaning of life and answers to other great questions. mind also that i frankly didn't care at the time - i was just making small talk. trying to at least.
these are two terms many people, myself included, use interchangebly. i figuered i would be pretty upset if i were a psychologist or psychiatrist and had spent what could've been the best years of my life bent over books studying just so others would in the future confuse me with "those other people" that happen to study something that sounds painfully similiar to what i do. so i decided to find out the difference myself. And its a pretty important difference if you are someone who is in need of a mental health provider but end up finding someone that doesn't have the proper training to do so.
A Matter of Education | at the most rudimentry level, the difference between the two lies in the education each recieves. a psychiatrist has a degree in medicine while a psychologist has a doctoral level degree in pschology. pschologists also either pursue a ph.d or a psy.d in clinical or counseling psychology. these programs often take 7 years and sometimes they are required to complete one or two years as an intern in order to gain a licsense. you can only call yourself a true psychologist and join the club when you have completed all of that. counselor and therapist are also terms that are thrown around, and are correctly applied, but could also be obtained a by a licensed social worker or other mental care professional. as for the pyschiatrists of the world, they are physicians trained to deal with mental diseases and in order to earn their title they attended medical school, recieved their md, after completing medical training and went through 4 years of residency focused on mental health and possibly additional training in an area of intrest such as adolescent pschiatry, addiction psychiatry, etc. |
Medication
PSYCHIATRISTS ARE THE ONES THAT CAN PRESCRIBE MEDICATIONS, SO THEY ARE THE ONES WE SHOULD CALL IN CASE OF MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES. HOWEVER THERE HAS BEEN A PUSH IN ORDER TO GRANT PSYCHOLOGISTS THE POWER OF PRESCRIPTION so maybe things will be different in the future.
The Focus
when dealing with patients, psychologists and psychiatrists have different approaches and focuses and more often than not will work together in order to treat a single patient. a psychologist will devote his time to understand the patient's feelings, emotions and thoughts and adminstering pschological tests and perform pschotherapy while a psychiatrist will focus primairly on the patient's chemical balance, which is why they can prescribe. one can be seen as more of a mentor and counselor while the other as a medical doctor, but keep in mind that both are indeed doctors that have earned their doctorates.
The Pay | perhaps less significantly, there is also a diffrence in payment. salaries for both psychiatrists and pschologists will vary depending on the specialized field. however psychiatrists do tend to make more money because of their medical degree. |