What Is Psychiatry?

A Medical doctor specialising in psychiatry is a psychiatrist. Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders, which include various affective (eg. anxiety, depression), behavioural (eg. addiction, violence, self harm), cognitive (eg. memory, logic) and perceptual disorders (eg. schizophrenia).

Mental disorders are currently conceptualised as disorders of brain circuits likely caused by developmental processes shaped by a complex interplay of genetics and experiences. In other words, the genetics of mental illness may really be the genetics of brain development, with different outcomes possible, depending on the biological and environmental context.

Those who practice psychiatry are different from most other mental health professionals and physicians in that they must be familiar with both the social and biological sciences. The discipline is interested in the operations of different organs and body systems as classified by the patient's subjective experiences and the objective physiology of the patient. Psychiatry exists to treat mental disorders which are conventionally divided into three very general categories; mental illness, severe learning disability, and personality disorder. While the focus of psychiatry has changed little throughout time, the diagnosis and treatment processes have evolved dramatically and continue to do so. Since the late 20th century, the field of psychiatry has continued to become more biological and less conceptually isolated from the field of medicine.

Mental disorders are diagnosed in accordance with criteria listed in diagnostic manuals such as the widely used Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

Treatment may be as an inpatient or outpatient, according to severity of function impairment and the disorder in question.