Psychiatry : Specialists

What is psychiatry?

Psychiatry is concerned with diseases and disorders of the mind. It addresses a range of mental illnesses with the aim of treating these so that the patient can participate in society.

What is mental illness?

Mental illness is very common and affects around 1 in 4 people in the UK. This includes anxiety, depression and personality disorders and can affect someone to the extent that they are unable to function as per normal.

Mental illness is no respecter of age, gender, social class, background, occupation etc. It can strike anyone at anytime and can have wide ranging effects on not only the individual concerned but their partner, family and friends.

There is still much that is unknown about mental health and the causes are complex to understand.

Mental illness can be caused by a serious life event, e.g. bereavement, drug or alcohol abuse or may be genetic in origin.

What does a psychiatrist do?

He or she is a highly trained individual who assesses, diagnoses and treats a wide range of mental illness.

They will look at ways of preventing mental illness and can prescribe rehabilitation for these and various forms of addiction such as drug abuse.

This is a complex field which requires many years of training and experience on the part of the psychiatrist.

Many psychiatrists decide to specialise in a particular area such as child psychiatry, adolescent psychiatry, forensic psychiatry or psychoanalysis.