Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental

disorders.[1][2] These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition,

and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry.
Initial psychiatric assessment of a person typically begins with a case history and mental status
examination. Physical examinations and psychological tests may be conducted. On
occasion, neuroimaging or other neurophysiological techniques are used.[3] Mental disorders are
often diagnosed in accordance with clinical concepts listed in diagnostic manuals such as
the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), edited and used by the World Health
Organization (WHO) and the widely used Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders (DSM), published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). The fifth edition of the
DSM (DSM-5) was published in 2013 which re-organized the larger categories of various diseases
and expanded upon the previous edition to include information/insights that are consistent with
current research.[4]
The combined treatment of psychiatric medication and psychotherapy has become the most
common mode of psychiatric treatment in current practice,[5][6] but contemporary practice also
includes a wide variety of other modalities, e.g., assertive community treatment, community
reinforcement, and supported employment. Treatment may be delivered on
an inpatient or outpatient basis, depending on the severity of functional impairment or on other
aspects of the disorder in question. An inpatient may be treated in a psychiatric hospital. Research
and treatment within psychiatry as a whole are conducted on an interdisciplinary basis with other
profPsychiatry refers to a field of medicine focused specifically on the mind, aiming to study, prevent,
and treat mental disorders in humans.[9][10][11] 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.[12]
People who specialize in psychiatry often differ from most other mental health
professionals and physicians in that they must be familiar with both the social and biological
sciences.[10] The discipline studies the operations of different organs and body systems as classified
by the patient's subjective experiences and the objective physiology of the patient. [13] Psychiatry
treats mental disorders, which are conventionally divided into three very general categories: mental
illnesses, severe learning disabilities, and personality disorders.[14] While the focus of psychiatry has
changed little over 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 other medical fields.[15]

Scope of practice[edit]
Further information: Neurology § Overlap with psychiatry

Disability-adjusted life year for neuropsychiatric conditions per 100,000 inhabitants in 2002

  no data
  less than 10
  10-20
  20-30
  30-40
  40-50
  50-60
  60-80
  80-100
  100-120
  120-140
  140-150
  more than 150

Though the medical specialty of psychiatry uses research in the field

of neuroscience, psychology, medicine, biology, biochemistry, and pharmacology,[16] it has generally
been considered a middle ground between neurology and psychology.[17] Because psychiatry and
neurology are deeply intertwined medical specialties, all certification for both specialties and for their
subspecialties is offered by a single board, the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, one of
the member boards of the American Board of Medical Specialties.[18] 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 therapeutic communication techniques.[17] Psychiatrists
also differ from psychologists in that they are physicians and have post-graduate training called
residency (usually 4 to 5 years) in psychiatry; the quality and thoroughness of their graduate medical
training is identical to that of all other physicians.[19] Psychiatrists can therefore counsel patients,
prescribe medication, order laboratory tests, order neuroimaging, and conduct physical
examinations.[3]

Ethics[edit]
See also: Ethical issues in psychiatry (disambiguation)
The World Psychiatric Association issues an ethical code to govern the conduct of psychiatrists (like
other purveyors of professional ethics). The psychiatric code of ethics, first set forth through the
Declaration of Hawaii in 1977 has been expanded through a 1983 Vienna update and in the broader
Madrid Declaration in 1996. The code was further revised during the organization's general
assemblies in 1999, 2002, 2005, and 2011.[20]
The World Psychiatric Association code covers such matters as confidentiality, the death penalty,
ethnic or cultural discrimination,[20] euthanasia, genetics, the human dignity of incapacitated patients,
media relations, organ transplantation, patient assessment, research ethics, sex selection,[21] torture,
[22][23]
 and up-to-date knowledge.
In establishing such ethical codes, the profession has responded to a number of controversies about
the practice of psychiatry, for example, surrounding the use of lobotomy and electroconvulsive
therapy.
Discredited psychiatrists who operated outside the norms of medical ethics include Harry
Bailey, Donald Ewen Cameron, Samuel A. Cartwright, Henry Cotton, and Andrei Snezhnevsky.[24]
[page  needed]

Approaches[edit]
Psychiatric illnesses can be conceptualised in a number of different ways. The biomedical approach
examines signs and symptoms and compares them with diagnostic criteria. Mental illness can be
assessed, conversely, through a narrative which tries to incorporate symptoms into a meaningful life
history and to frame them as responses to external conditions. Both approaches are important in the
field of psychiatry[25] but have not sufficiently reconciled to settle controversy over either the selection
of a psychiatric paradigm or the specification of psychopathology. The notion of a "biopsychosocial
model" is often used to underline the multifactorial nature of clinical impairment.[26][27][28] In this notion
the word model is not used in a strictly scientific way though.[26] Alternatively, a "biocognitive
model" acknowledges the physiological basis for the mind's existence but identifies cognition as
an irreducible and independent realm in which disorder may occur.[26][27][28] The biocognitive approach
includes a mentalist etiology and provides a natural dualist (i.e., non-spiritual) revision of the
biopsychosocial view, reflecting the efforts of Australian psychiatrist Niall McLaren to bring the
discipline into scientific maturity in accordance with the paradigmatic standards
of philosopher Thomas Kuhn.[26][27][28]
Once a medical professional diagnoses a patient there are numerous ways that they could choose to
treat the patient. Often psychiatrists will develop a treatment strategy that incorporates different
facets of different approaches into one. Drug prescriptions are very commonly written to be
regimented to patients along with any therapy they receive. There are three major pillars of
psychotherapy that treatment strategies are most regularly drawn from. Humanistic
psychology attempts to put the "whole" of the patient in perspective; it also focuses on self
exploration.[29] Behaviorism is a therapeutic school of thought that elects to focus solely on real and
observable events, rather than mining the unconscious or subconscious. Psychoanalysis, on the
other hand, concentrates its dealings on early childhood, irrational drives, the unconscious, and
conflict between conscious and unconscious streams.[30]
essionals, such as epidemiologists, nurses, or psychologists.