Psychiatry

Psychiatry is a medical specialty devoted to the treatment, study and prevention of mental disorders. The term was first coined by the German physician Johann Christian Reil in 1808. Psychiatric assessment typically involves a mental status examination, the taking of a case history. Psychological tests may also be conducted. Physical examinations may be carried out and on occasion neuroimaging or other neurophysiological studies are performed. Mental disorders are diagnosed based on criteria listed in diagnostic manuals, such as the widely used Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), published by the American Psychiatric Association, the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), and the World Health Organization. Psychiatric treatment employs a variety of therapeutic modalities including medications, psychotherapy, and a wide variety of other treatments such as transcranial magnetic stimulation. Depending upon the disorder being treated, the severity of the symptoms, and level of impaired functioning, treatment may be conducted on an inpatient or outpatient basis. Research and the clinical application of psychiatry are conducted on an interdisciplinary basis involving various sub-specialties and theoretical approaches

Historical origins
n the West, treatment of emotional and cognitive dysfunction may be said to have its origins at least as far back as the 5th century BC. The first hospices for the mentally ill appeared in the Middle Ages. The early 19th century saw the development of psychiatry as a recognized field. Mental health institutions came to utilize more elaborate and, over the course of time, more humane treatment methods. The 19th century saw a huge increase in the number of patients. The 20th century saw an upsurge of biological understanding of mental disorders, as well as the introduction of more systematic disease classification, and the advent of sophisticated psychiatric medication. An anti-psychiatry movement, hostile to most of the fundamental assumptions and practices of the discipline, emerged in the 1960s. A shift in emphasis in several Western societies led to the dismantling of state psychiatric hospitals in favor of more community-based treatment

Theory and focus
he term psychiatry (????at????), coined by Johann Christian Reil in 1808, comes from the Greek “????” (soul or mind) and “?at???" (healer or doctor).[4][5][6] It refers to a field of medicine focused specifically on the mind, aiming to study, prevent, and treat mental disorders in humans.[7][8][9] It has been described as an intermediary between the world from a social context and the world from the perspective of those who are mentally ill.[10] Those who practice psychiatry are different than most other mental health professionals and physicians in that they must be familiar with both the social and biological sciences.[11] 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.[12] Psychiatry exists to treat mental disorders which are conventionally divided into three very general categories; mental illness, severe learning disability, and personality disorder.[13] While the focus of psychiatry has changed little throughout time, the diagnostic 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

Scope of practice
While the medical specialty of psychiatry utilizes research in the field of neuroscience, psychology, medicine, biology, biochemistry, and pharmacology, it has generally been considered a middle ground between neurology and psychology. Unlike other physicians and neurologists, psychiatrists specialize in the doctor-patient relationship and are trained to varying extents in the use of psychotherapy and other therepautic communication techniques. Psychiatrists also differ from psychologists in that they are physicians and the entirety of their post-graduate training is revolved around the field of medicine. Psychiatrists can therefore counsel patients, prescribe medication, order laboratory tests, utilize neuroimaging in a research setting, and conduct physical examinations