preview

Clinical Psychiatrists

Decent Essays

Psychiatrists, for many years, have received much criticism on their practices, particularly the reinforcement of medication in their treatment of clients. This among other factors has caused a lot of tension between psychiatrists and clinical psychologists, who believe that therapy and communication is just as, if not more, important than providing intervention and the prescription of medication with debatable effects on clients health. Psychiatrists, also known as physicians, debate that they have years of rigorous medical training followed by more years of residency in psychiatric medical centers, which grants them particular knowledge in the effects and risks of the medication they prescribe as opposed to a primary care physician diagnosing …show more content…

They are also well known for their psychiatric diagnoses, noted by the publication of the most recent Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders, also known as the DSM-5 (Halgin, 2014). The DSM determines which mental disorders are important in legal standing, insurance compensation, and aspects of everyday life (Watters, 2013). Although many critics claim that the DSM lacks validity in its diagnoses and promotes over diagnosing as well as inappropriate medication use, the DSM is still widely used by many professionals in the mental health fields (Watters, 2013). Although psychiatrists are known to enforce psychopharmacologic therapy they also have extensive knowledge of other forms of brain procedure therapies such as electroconvulsive therapy and deep brain stimulation (Halgin, …show more content…

Unlike psychiatrists, clinical psychologists earn a doctorate in psychology either at a university or professional school of psychology and are overall more focused on psychological theories and interventions than psychopharmacology (Halgin, 2014). However, since they are unable to prescribe medication they are usually assigned to work with psychiatrists or primary health practitioners in the case that a client may need psychotropic medications (Halgin, 2014). Many clinical psychologists have voiced their concerns over how psychiatrists have exceeded their boundaries and have continuously misdiagnosed and mistreated many of their clients, and suggest that a change has to be made in the way they work with their clients (Halgin, 2014). Ever since the introduction of psychopharmacology into the field of psychiatry, many clients will insist that they have some form of disorder and prefer, if not request, drug treatment rather than finding an actual diagnosis and receiving effective treatment, if it is even necessary (Sack & Shore, 1981; Halgin,

Get Access