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Psychiatrist Job Description, Career as a Psychiatrist, Salary, Employment - Definition and Nature of the Work, Education and Training Requirements, Getting the Job


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Education and Training: College, medical school, and specialized training

Salary: Median—$180,000 per year

Employment Outlook: Very good

Definition and Nature of the Work

Psychiatrists are physicians who specialize in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of mental disorders. They treat patients with mild cases of anxiety as well as those with severe disorders that can cause dangerous and bizarre behavior. Psychiatrists may also diagnose mental retardation and treat alcoholism. They often work with other mental health workers, such as psychologists, psychiatric nurses, and psychiatric social workers.

Psychiatrists talk with patients to learn about their mental health problems. They may also use information provided by patients' families or by other mental health workers. They are trained to recognize the connection between mental and physical disorders, so they may order laboratory or other diagnostic tests.

For treatment, psychiatrists can prescribe drugs and use shock therapy and psychotherapy. In psychotherapy, psychiatrists use their special training to talk with one or more patients to help them understand and cope with their problems.

Psychiatrist and patient in therapy session

Psychiatrists may work with patients in private offices or in hospitals or clinics. They may also do research, studying the causes and treatment of mental illness. Some psychiatrists teach in medical schools or in special psychiatric institutes. Others write or edit psychiatric books or journals.

Psychiatrists are often confused with psychologists and psychoanalysts. Psychiatrists are physicians who have advanced training in psychiatry. As physicians, they can prescribe medication. Psychologists have either master's degrees or doctorates in psychology. They are not physicians and cannot prescribe drugs or perform surgery. Psychologists are basically scientists who study the reactions of people to their environment. Psychoanalysts are specially trained to practice long-term therapy that investigates the subconscious or hidden causes of emotional disturbances. Most psychoanalysts are psychiatrists, while those known as lay analysts are not.

Education and Training Requirements

Psychiatrists need extensive training after high school. They get bachelor's degrees, followed by four years of medical school. After one-year internships, they must also have three years of psychiatric training as residents in hospitals. Usually after one or two years of residency, psychiatrists must take examinations to be licensed, which is required in all states. They need additional experience before they are eligible to take examinations for certification as psychiatrists.

Getting the Job

Psychiatrists work in institutions or in private practice. Some combine the two types of work. Building a successful private practice can take a while, so many beginning psychiatrists start their careers in established psychiatric offices. Professional associations can provide information about setting up a practice or getting salaried positions.

Advancement Possibilities and Employment Outlook

Psychiatrists usually advance by building their practices. Some specialize in fields such as child, educational, or legal psychiatry. Others become teachers, researchers, or administrators in colleges, hospitals, or other institutions.

Employment of physicians in general is expected to grow faster than average for all occupations through 2014. Expansion of the health-care industry, a growing population, and increasing life spans, as well as higher incomes and educational levels, are spurring the demand. Shortages of psychiatrists exist, especially in rural areas and in public facilities.

Working Conditions

Psychiatrists in private practice work in quiet, peaceful settings so their patients can feel at ease. However, the work can be stressful because of the suffering they see every day. In addition, psychiatrists in private practice must be available to their patients whenever they need help, so their working hours can be irregular. Psychiatrists who work in hospitals and clinics often have more regular hours than private practitioners do because the staff divides the hours they must be on call. To do their work well, psychiatrists must be well balanced, disciplined, and enjoy working with all kinds of people.

Where to Go for More Information

American College of Psychiatrists
122 S. Michigan Ave., Ste. 1360
Chicago, IL 60603
(312) 622-1020
http://www.acpsych.org

American Psychiatric Association
1000 Wilson Blvd., Ste. 1825
Arlington, VA 22209-3901
(703) 907-7300
http://www.psych.org

Earnings and Benefits

Psychiatrists' earnings are similar to those of other physicians. In 2004 psychiatrists who had been in practice more than one year earned a median income of $180,000 per year. Psychiatrists in private practice provided their own benefits. Salaried psychiatrists received paid holidays and vacations, health insurance, and retirement plans.

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User Comments Add a comment…

14 days ago

Okay jonny. Not all us Pyschiatrist are like that. I take all my patients very seriously and try to understand every little detail thats going through there mind before even thinking about giving them a prescription. Some of us Pyschiatrist care for our patients. Thank you

2 months ago

You guys forgot to mention what a REAL Pyschiatrist does now. He is quite effecient in his work. Here is how it goes... He gets a patient, listens for about 5-10 minutes, diagnoses patient as to having some sort of "mental disorder", prescribes him a powerful and addictive mind altering drug, makes a load of money on both the visit and of course the "prescription drug" and walla! Gee There is the profession. Anyone who likes to do this sort of thing and destroy in the name of help are welcome to join! Just think of all those kids you can falsley label ADHD and then give them powerful mood altering drugs? And oh yeah, make lots and lots of money too... ;)

2 months ago

My nephew is a PSYCHIATRIST, he has completed his studies and his internship in Europe, he would like to come to the USA to continue his carreer, what does he have to do. Will he need to continue his studies in the USA to get his USA psychiatrists license and if so what exactly does he still need

2 months ago

It says psychoanalysts are often psychiatrists. I don't think that's so. They are often psychologists, who have a superior non-medical knowledge of psychology, which is what is involved in psychoanalysis. A psychoanalyst wouldn't want to block someone's mental state by a drug.

9 months ago

thank you, but can you tell me what personal qualifications might be needed?

11 months ago

WeLL I WANT TO KNOW IF PSYCHIATRIST USE ANY EQUIPMENT? iF THEY DO P.S. PUT IT IN THE PAGE

THANX

11 months ago

This website was so very helpful! Thanks for your help! (:

12 months ago

Thanks for the info! This will really help with my report.

12 months ago

I am really interested in becoming a psychiatrist in the future. This information is extremely helpful in giving an idea of what it takes to do so. Thank you for providing this information.

12 months ago

Hi, I am doing my 2 nd year residency in Psychiatry in russia. I am planning to go to usa after my training. The information that you have given in this site is very useful and helpful. I' ll be much grateful if you 'd inform me further what examintions I have to go through , to join as a Psychiatrist in usa, after the completion of my residency. I 'll complete my residency in June 2010.

Dr Sreekanth Davu.

Ryazan, Russia . 19 Nov 2008.

about 1 year ago

I have to do a project for my HCA class. This is really helping me because I had to start ALL OVER. Thanks for having this site available. @:3

about 1 year ago

thanks for the info it really helped me when i had to do my career at school

about 1 year ago

this website is great~

it helped me a lot in my english paper

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=]

about 1 year ago

this has helped me alot in my senior porfolio!

about 1 year ago

this website really helped me to open my eyes and really see what i ewanted to be when i grow up :)

thanks

about 1 year ago

Hey, im Going to be a psychiatrist after im out of high school. this really helped me get an idea what i would have to do and what it would be like.

about 1 year ago

im ahead of alot of ppl n ma project! WHEW! thx alot

about 1 year ago

WOW have a five pages of a six page paper, and i found the sixth with this website!!! thanks

about 1 year ago

helped my project

about 1 year ago

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about 1 year ago

This website has a lot of great information. I also used it for a school paper in which I wrote about a job I may have. Thanks!

about 1 year ago

Thanks for your help! This website was a very nice resource site for a career project i had to do. I can see it helped many other people in the same boat as me :)

about 1 year ago

this helped alot with my 3 minute presentation on psychiatrist and psychology for my balancing careers and family class =) ^_^ =)

about 1 year ago

This site has helped me figure out what I want to do in life.

about 1 year ago

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about 1 year ago

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about 1 year ago

I have a career project due and this helped ALOT! thx alot!

about 1 year ago

i have a report due for health service class and this site just basically made the whole assignment easier it had all the information i needed!!!

about 1 year ago

thx it was a big help 4 my summer homework

about 1 year ago

thanks i am doing a project for school and this helped out a lot

about 1 year ago

Thanks so much to the site. i now have a good understanding of what my career will include. thi sreally helped!

about 1 year ago

Hey,

I just wanted to say thanks this sight really helped me get what I need for a career brochure that is due.

One thing I was wondering is if you could put up a some kind of graph that shows the salary a psychatrist makes.

That would be EXTREMELY helpful!

=]]

about 1 year ago

im doing a 8th grade report on future careers..this site eally helped me..

about 1 year ago

thanx will help with my project a lot

about 1 year ago

This is really helpful. I'm doing Health careers for my Health class and this site provided all the iformation I needed. Thanks!

about 1 year ago

wow! this is very helpful! i was having the same problem writing a report, and over half the information I need is right here! thankyou so much!

about 1 year ago

thanks so much for all the info! I'm doing a presentation on psychiatry, and this site told me exactly what I needed to know.

about 1 year ago

Thanx to this site, I finished my project just in time to turn it and get an A

about 1 year ago

Wonderful! I also need this information for a career project, and not to mention my future!! :]

about 1 year ago

thanks it really helped me w/ my school paper!!!

about 1 year ago

This website has helped me out alot! i didn't really know what i wanted to major in after high school, but i wanted to get a head start on things since i'm in the 10th grade. now i know what i want to do after high school. This website was a big help because it went into more
detail, a excellent resource! THANKS!!

about 1 year ago

This site really is helpful because I'm doing a project on a career that i want to learn about and this really helped me out big time THANKS!!!!!!!!

about 1 year ago

Does anyone know how I can get an Interview with a psychiatrist?

about 1 year ago

This website is a life saver. I didn't even start on my esaay and thnks to this website I'm almost finished.I toaught I was going to fail for real this time. Wheew

Th@$ks --

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about 1 year ago

I WANT TO THANK YOU SO MUCH I AM DOING A CAREER RESEARCH PAPER ON PSCHIATRIST. EVERYWHERE I HAVE LOOKED THERE IS NO PLACE WITH THE BENEFITS OF A PSYCHIATRIST.THANK YOU!!!!

about 1 year ago

this website was most helpfull for my school paper (which is on psychiatry) Thanks! But i would like to know all the different fields of psychiatry.

about 1 year ago

This Information is really helpful. I am doing a Career project and I've been trying all these other web sites and none of them were as good as this one! Thanks so much!

about 1 year ago

This website was really helpful, thank you for the information you provided. One thing I would suggest would be to add a section explaining if there are any special skills or abilities psychiatrists need or have.

about 1 year ago

Thank you so much for this information, you really helped me understand what it takes to become a psychiatrist.

about 1 year ago

This is a very convenient straight forward educational article. It has helped me a great deal while writing my term 2 essay in Career.

about 1 year ago

thank you it helped with my career project soo much !

about 1 year ago

thanks alot you really helped on my science paper

about 1 year ago

This is an excellent resource for educating the general public on this great career. As for the person who commented that this line of work is one which "ruins lives", I'd like to say that I am a Harvard student studying this line of work and believe that those who think psychiatric medicine is toxic witchcraft have not worked in a clinic or had much experience whatever with the mentally ill who benefit greatly from psychiatrists.

about 1 year ago

this is a helpful resources and it has helped me tremendously on my research paper! it has a lot of detailed information, thanks!

about 1 year ago

thanks for the information. you see im 13 and in the 8th grade and we're doin a research paper on health careers and i chose a psychiatrist and this website has gave me a lot of info. please and thank you!!!!

about 1 year ago

I'm a student at Fairdale High School in Louisville Kentucky. This website helped me find the information that I needed for my Feature Artical=D I'm gald that my teacher gave me this website to use for my Artical!! Thanx alot=D

about 1 year ago

Psychiatry causes at least 90% of the mental illness out there by "treating" conditons with psychiatric drugs. These medications cause brain damage and thus cause people to become mentally ill. If you want to actually help people become a psychologist. Talk therapy does not cause brain damage, but psychiatric medications unfortunately do.

about 1 year ago

This site helped me a lot on my English Research Paper Final.

about 1 year ago

thanx a lot 4 helping me on my child development paper!!!!!!

about 1 year ago

The majority of my psychology paper was sourced to your web page. The information was accurate and useful. Thank you very much.

over 2 years ago

you didnt incluse anything about ones that wont to work in hospital

over 2 years ago

i <3 you guys for all the help that i have recieved from you thanks a bunches

over 2 years ago

wow...this really helped me out alot and this is exactly what i was looking for and i couldnt find this anywhere else..thank you so much.. i am definitly going into this field after reading this..i am excited





thanks again



i would love to recieve more information about this career via email



thanks again





much appreciated

over 2 years ago

This website helped me find out excatly what i needed to know. Now I'm entering my first year of college majoring in Psychology to b a psychiatrist.

over 2 years ago

I've been looking everywhere for a site that could tell me all of this. It rocks, it has answered so many of my questions. Thanks!!

over 2 years ago

I would like to say that I loved this website. It helped me out alot. I"m doing a PBL project on who I am now an who I want to become. I've wanted to be a psychiatrist ever since I was about 10 years old. I"m 14 now and I haven't lost any passion for it.Keep up the good work..this is the only site that gave me what I was looking for.

over 2 years ago

nice site of information...you gave me the info, especially on the education requirements, which most other sites will not get into. kudos to you guys on that...if you'd like, put more info on colleges that cater to psychiatric careers...and to perfect your site even more give a little more info on salaries in rural areas...thanks...good site!

over 2 years ago

i am a 7th grader planning to be a Psychiartrist.

This site helped me out alot



THANKS

over 2 years ago

I'm a junior in high school and i plan on becoming a psychiatrist. i love helping other people and ive taken two psychology classes. this site was very helpful!!

over 2 years ago

I Like This Website =) It Helped Me A Lot With My Research on psychiatrists Because thats what I wanna be when I get older So In my Intro To Majors class I Am Writing a paper about psychiatrists because my teacher is making me && maybe thats why I dont like her so much .. I Dont know lol. But Anyways This Web Site Helped Me So Thanx Oh! && did I Mention That Im Gonna Be A Psychiatrist When I Get Older lol. .Cause I Need A Psychiatrits && They Say Most ppl In The Psychiatric fild Needs Psychiatrits themselves && I Do Need One Ill Prolly Get One Soon Thats What Mommy Says Cause Then I Wont Be Depressed No More && See Wouldnt I Be A Good Psychiatrist Thanx! <3 You