Psychiatry
The medical specialty devoted to diagnosing, treating, and preventing mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians who can prescribe medication, order tests, and provide or coordinate therapy, distinguishing them from non-physician mental-health clinicians.
What is psychiatry?
Psychiatry is the medical specialty focused on diagnosing, treating, and preventing mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders. Practitioners are physicians who complete medical training and then specialize in the assessment and management of conditions affecting the mind and behavior.
Because psychiatrists are medical doctors, they can prescribe medications, order and interpret laboratory and imaging tests, and treat the physical dimensions of psychiatric illness. They may provide psychotherapy directly or coordinate it with other mental-health professionals.
Why does it matter that a psychiatrist is a physician?
The physician training behind psychiatry distinguishes it from non-physician mental-health roles such as psychologists, counselors, and social workers, who do not prescribe medication in most settings. This affects which clinician a patient needs depending on the complexity of their condition.
That distinction also carries through to billing and credentialing. The services a psychiatrist can perform and bill, including medication management and certain evaluations, differ from those of other behavioral health providers, which matters for accurate coding and network participation.
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