What does the science of psychiatry study? Psychiatry as a subject of teaching, its tasks

Psychiatry is a branch of clinical medicine that studies disorders of mental functions and, as a result, objective perception of reality caused by diseases, as well as developing methods for their treatment, prevention and assistance to mentally ill people.

see also (the science of human behavior outside of clearly pathological conditions) and Social psychology.

General information

Psychiatry is usually divided into

general psychiatry(psychopathology) - studies the signs (symptoms and syndromes) of disorders of mental functions (perception, memory, thinking, ), and
private psychiatry, which studies diseases whose clinical manifestations include mental dysfunction.

Clinical psychology also studies borderline conditions between normality and pathology. This area of research is developing in the USA and other countries.

Psychopathology

Psychopathology (also called general psychiatry, as opposed to private psychiatry, which does not write off symptoms and syndromes, but describes specific diseases) includes the following concepts:

Productive symptoms

In the case when the result of the work of a mental function is mental production, which should not normally exist, such mental production is called “positive”, “productive” symptoms. Positive symptoms are a sign of some disease (not always). Diseases, the key symptoms of which are this kind of “positive” symptoms, are usually called “Mental diseases” or “mental illnesses”. Syndromes formed by “positive” symptoms in psychiatry are usually called “” (the topic deserves separate consideration). Since a disease is a dynamic process that can end either in recovery or in the formation of a defect (with or without transition to a chronic form), this kind of “positive” symptomatology ultimately ends in recovery or the formation of a defect. This defect in the functioning of mental function in psychiatry is usually called “dementia.” (Dementia that occurs before the completion of the formation of mental functions, that is, congenital or formed in childhood, requires separate consideration). It should also be noted that productive symptoms are not specific (for any particular disease). For example, delusions, hallucinations, and depression can be present in the picture of any mental illness (with different frequencies and characteristics of the course). But, at the same time, an “exogenous” (that is, caused by diseases external to brain cells) type of reaction (mentality) is distinguished. They are also called exogenous psychoses. This type of reaction includes perception disorders (psychoses, in which hallucinatory disorders occur mainly). And the endogenous type of reaction (psychics) or “endogenous” (that is, caused by fermentopathy directly in the brain cell) psychoses. For the endogenous type of response, the key symptom is a disorder of thinking (delusion) or affect (mania, depression). It should be noted that there is a concept according to which endogenous psychoses are a single disease and there are good reasons for this.

Negative symptoms

Dementia (defect) is characteristic of every mental illness, and therefore is a defining moment in its diagnosis (diagnosis).

In the case when the functioning of a mental function is disrupted in such a way that this mental function ceases to process the information coming to it, then such disorders are called “negative symptoms” or dementia. Like any defect, this condition is stable for the rest of life if the disease ends. If the course of the disease continues, the defect (in this case, dementia) may intensify. Now let's look at the “positive” and “negative” symptoms in relation to each mental function.

Perception disorders

For the perception of a defect (negative symptoms) there cannot be, by definition, since it is the primary source of information for mental activity. Positive symptoms for include (incorrect assessment of information received from the sense organs) and hallucination (a disturbance of perception in one or more sense organs (analyzers), in which a false (imaginary) perception of non-existent information not perceived by the sense organs is interpreted as real).

Perception disorders are also usually classified according to the sense organs to which the distorted information relates (example: “visual hallucinations”, “auditory hallucinations”, “tactile hallucinations” - they are also called “senestopathies”).

Sometimes disturbances in perception are accompanied by disturbances in thinking, and in this case illusions and hallucinations receive interpretation. Such delirium is called “sensual.” This is figurative delirium, with a predominance of illusions and hallucinations. Ideas with it are fragmentary, inconsistent - primarily a violation of sensory cognition (perception).

Memory disorders

The problem of positive symptoms for mental function will be discussed further (in the “Conclusion” section).

Dementia in which the key disorder is memory impairment is the so-called “Organic Brain Disease”.

Thinking disorders

For a productive symptom is (a conclusion that did not arise as a result of processing incoming information and is not corrected by incoming information). Dementia, the key symptom of which is a disturbance in the mental function called thinking, is characteristic of epilepsy. It would be appropriate to mention that in ordinary psychiatric practice, the term “thought disorder” refers to either delusions or various disorders of the thinking process, which deserve separate consideration.

Affect disorders

A positive symptom for is " " and " " (increased or, respectively, decreased), which is not the result of an assessment of incoming information and does not change under the influence of incoming information.

Dementia, the key point of which is a violation of mental function called affect (that is, its absence) is. Here it would be appropriate to mention that in psychiatric practice the term “affect disorder” is used to refer specifically to positive symptoms (mania and (or) depression), and not in the meaning in which this term is given in this article.

Conclusion

The key for psychopathology is the following circumstance - a mental illness, which is characterized by productive disorders (psychosis) in one of the mental functions, causes negative disorders (defect) in the next mental function. That is, if positive symptoms of perception (hallucinations) were noted as a key symptom, then one should expect negative symptoms of memory (development of organic dementia). And if there are positive symptoms of thinking (delusions), one should expect negative symptoms of affect (schizophrenic defect - emotional flattening, indifference to everything, apathy).

Since the effect is the final stage of information processing by the brain (that is, the last stage of mental activity), a defect does not occur after the productive symptoms of affect (mania or depression).

As for memory, the very phenomenon of productive symptoms of this mental function is not outlined, since, based on theoretical premises, it should clinically manifest itself in the absence (a person does not remember what happens with memory impairment). In practice, the development of negative symptoms of the mental function “thinking” (epileptic dementia) is preceded by epileptic seizures.

After a schematic description of the main symptom complexes of mental illnesses, let us move on to the description of these diseases themselves.

Classification of mental disorders

There are many classifications of mental disorders, but there is not one that is based on one generally accepted criterion.

Below is a division of mental illnesses that has been used in practical psychiatry for the last hundred years and, in all likelihood, will be used for another hundred. These diseases include “Organic brain disease” (more often called “Psycho-organic syndrome”, which is more correct, in fact), epilepsy, schizophrenia and manic-depressive psychosis.

Psychoorganic syndrome

Psycho-borderline syndrome (organic psychosyndrome) is a state of mental weakness caused by organic brain damage (vascular diseases of the brain, lesions of the central nervous system, syphilis, traumatic brain injuries, various intoxications, chronic metabolic disorders, tumors and abscesses of the brain, encephalitis). But especially often, psychoorganic syndrome occurs during atrophic processes of the brain in presenile and old age (Alzheimer’s disease, senile dementia). In its mildest form, psychoorganic syndrome is an asthenic state with weakness, increased exhaustion, emotional lability, instability of attention, and decreased performance. In severe forms of psychoorganic syndrome, intellectual-mnestic decline comes first, reaching the level of dementia (dementia).

Because the key point in dementia caused by psychoorganic syndrome is the violation, then intellectual impairment in patients manifests itself primarily as the ability to acquire new knowledge deteriorates to varying degrees, the volume and quality of knowledge acquired in the past decreases, and the range of interests is limited. Subsequently, deterioration occurs, in particular oral (vocabulary decreases, the structure of phrases becomes simpler, the patient more often uses verbal templates and auxiliary words). It is important to note that memory impairment applies to all types. Memorization of new facts deteriorates, i.e. memory for current events suffers, the ability to retain what is perceived and the ability to activate memory reserves decreases.

Epilepsy

The clinical manifestations of epilepsy are extremely diverse. This article discusses only a characteristic epileptic defect (epileptic dementia). A key component of epileptic dementia is impaired thinking. Mental operations include analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization, abstraction and concretization followed by formation. It is the process of abstraction and concept formation that is primarily disrupted in epilepsy. The patient loses the ability to separate the main, essential from the secondary, from small details. The patient’s thinking becomes more and more concretely descriptive, cause-and-effect relationships cease to be understandable to him. The patient gets bogged down in trifles and has great difficulty switching from one topic to another. In patients with epilepsy, it is found that the named objects are limited to the framework of one concept (only domestic animals are named as animate, or furniture and surroundings are named as inanimate). The inertia of the flow of associative processes characterizes their thinking as stiff and viscous. The impoverishment of vocabulary often leads to the fact that patients resort to forming an antonym by adding the particle “not” to a given word. The unproductive thinking of patients with epilepsy is sometimes called labyrinthine.

Schizophrenia

This article discusses only the characteristic defect (schizophrenic dementia - dementia praecox). A key component of schizophrenic dementia is a disorder of a mental function called. This dementia is characterized by emotional impoverishment, reaching the level of emotional dullness. The defect lies in the fact that the patient does not have emotions at all and (or) the emotional reaction to the production of thinking is distorted (this discrepancy between the content of thinking and the emotional assessment is called “splitting of the psyche”).

Affective insanity

With the development of mental disorders (productive symptoms, that is, mania or depression), a mental function called a defect (dementia) does not occur.

Unitary psychosis theory

According to the theory of “single psychosis”, a single endogenous mental illness, which combines the concepts of “schizophrenia” and “manic-depressive psychosis”, in the initial stages of its development occurs in the form of “mania”, “melancholy (i.e. depression)” or “ madness" (acute delirium). Then, if “madness” exists, it naturally transforms into “nonsense” (chronic delirium) and, finally, leads to the formation of “secondary dementia.” The founder of the theory of unified psychosis is V. Griesinger. It is based on the clinical principle of T. Sydenham, according to which the syndrome is a natural combination of symptoms that change over time. There are serious arguments in favor of the correctness of this theory. One of them is the fact that disorders of affect also include specific disorders of thinking caused solely by disturbances of affect (the so-called secondary changes in thinking). Such specific (secondary) thinking disorders are, first of all, disturbances in the tempo of thinking (the tempo of the thinking process). A manic state causes the pace of thinking to accelerate, while depression slows down the pace of the thinking process. Moreover, changes in the pace of thinking can be so pronounced that thinking itself becomes unproductive. The pace of thinking during mania can increase to such an extent that all connections are lost not only between sentences, but between words (this condition is called “verbal hash”). On the other hand, depression can slow down the pace of the thinking process so much that thinking stops altogether.

Disturbances of affect can also become the cause of a peculiar delusion, characteristic only of disturbances of affect (such delirium is called “secondary”). A manic state causes delusions of grandeur, and depression is the root cause of ideas of self-deprecation. Another argument in favor of the theory of a single psychosis is the fact that between schizophrenia and manic-depressive psychosis there are intermediate, transitional forms. And not only from the point of view of productive, but also from the point of view of negative, that is, symptoms that determine the diagnosis of the disease. For such transitional states, there is a general rule that states: the more disorder of affect in the endogenous disease in relation to the productive disorder of thinking, the less pronounced the subsequent defect (specific dementia) will be. Thus, schizophrenia and manic-depressive psychosis are one of the variants of the course of the same disease. Only schizophrenia is the most malignant variant of the course, since it leads to the development of severe dementia, and manic-depressive psychosis is the most benign variant of the course of a single endogenous disease, since in this case the defect (specific dementia) does not develop at all.

A psychiatrist is a doctor who studies, diagnoses and treats mental disorders. This specialist also provides counseling to mentally healthy people.

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General information

Psychiatry is a field of clinical medicine that studies methods of diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mental disorders, considering mental disorders taking into account medical methodology.

General psychiatry studies the general patterns of mental disorders, since certain pathological mental states develop in various diseases.

Private psychiatry examines the patterns and mechanisms of development of individual mental illnesses.

Clinical psychiatry deals with symptoms and organic changes in the body that provoke mental disorders.

In connection with the psychotraumatic impact of emergency situations on a person’s personality, disaster psychiatry is also distinguished separately.

The areas of activity of a psychiatrist include:

counseling people with both healthy mental health and mental disorders;
organizing assistance and developing psychoprophylaxis for people suffering from mental disorders;
treating patients using medications;
psychiatric examination to determine the degree of legal capacity and state of mental health (the examination can be medical-social (labor), military-psychiatric and forensic-psychiatric).

Preventive consultation with a psychiatrist is carried out when:

registering a child in a childcare center or school;
employment in hazardous working conditions;
passing a military medical examination;
obtaining a driving license, weapons permit, etc.

Consultation stages

Psychiatrist consultation includes:

interviewing the patient in order to clarify complaints, symptoms and history of the disorder (if the patient himself cannot provide this information, close relatives are interviewed);
testing and, if necessary, additional diagnostics;
making a diagnosis;
choice of treatment strategy and conditions (outpatient or inpatient).

Examination and treatment can be carried out anonymously; only socially dangerous patients are forcibly admitted to the hospital after passing an examination.

Diagnostics

The diagnosis is made based on the clinical picture of the disease and test results.

Additionally, hormonal studies are carried out (the condition of the thyroid gland, pituitary gland and adrenal glands is assessed).

Neurophysiological examination is also carried out, including:

duplex scanning of head vessels.

In addition, evoked potentials and features of the autonomic system can be examined.

Treatment

When treating mental disorders, a psychiatrist may use:

drug therapy (antidepressants for depression, tranquilizers for neurosis, antipsychotics for schizophrenia, etc.);
methods of hypnotherapy, conversation, art therapy and other psychotherapeutic methods;
group therapy;
auto-training method.

Liqmed reminds you: the sooner you seek help from a specialist, the greater your chances of maintaining health and reducing the risk of complications.

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Psychiatry is a branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of human mental illness. Since mental illnesses also cause somatic disorders, and even more so because mental, social and somatic factors jointly contribute to their occurrence, psychiatry (both clinical and scientific) must rely on both psychological and biological categories.

Psychiatry for most people seems to be an incomprehensible and mysterious field of knowledge. A diagnosis of mental illness is very difficult for many people. Considering how common unsubstantiated sensational reports are in medicine, it is not surprising that psychiatry is easily feared and suggestions of mental illness are often dismissed as unacceptable. On the other hand, today there is a widespread opinion that everything mental, including mental illness, is understandable even to laymen, and one can always easily discuss the topics of mental illness and psychiatry in general. Thus, the attitudes here are ambiguous and diverse.

Anyone who studies psychiatry thoroughly discovers an extremely diverse, scientifically interesting and therapeutically successful field of knowledge, which can rightfully be classified as one of the medical disciplines that has reached great heights in recent years.

Psychopathology is a branch of psychiatry that deals with “describing painful experiences, states and behavior of a person in their mental, social and biological relationships” (Mundt). This definition allows us to conclude that psychopathology has different directions. Mental disorders are described, diagnosed and classified (descriptive, or categorical, psychopathology); Psychopathology relates to psychiatry in much the same way as pathological physiology relates to therapy. In addition, psychopathology reveals the internal connections of mental disorders (phenomenological and explanatory psychopathology), as well as deep psychological and interpersonal relationships (dynamic, interactional, or progressive, psychopathology). The pathological aspect refers to the nature of the patient’s experience of his condition.

Just as pathological physiology is built on the foundation of general physiology, so psychopathology is based on psychology. Psychology is the scientific treatment of normal mental processes, including their practical applications. Along with general and experimental psychology, physicians are interested in developmental psychology, the study of personality and psychodiagnostics.

Medical psychology is a set of problems in medical and psychiatric research. It includes the psychosocial development of a person, his attitude towards health and illness, the relationship between the doctor and the patient.

In order to be tested in Germany, preclinical research of patients is carried out by specialists from the field of medical psychology and medical sociology. This innovation should be welcomed as progressive, but such studies should be viewed critically if they remain purely theoretical and are not supported by clinical data. In Switzerland they took a different path. There, the data of such specialists is summarized within the framework of psychosocial medicine, which studies “health and disease from a biopsychosocial perspective” (Willy and Heim).

Clinical psychology- This is part of applied psychology. However, the term “clinical” does not imply in this context the clinic and treatment of the disease. Clinical psychology deals only with personality diagnostics (test indicators) and, based on psychological indicators, allows one to assess various events in a person’s life and offer appropriate recommendations (for example, on upbringing, education, professional, family problems, attitude towards drugs). There is no clear distinction between psychological counseling and psychotherapy.

Psychiatry in no way relies solely on psychology and psychopathology. The frequently used concept " psychological medicine» is false and only misleading, since psychiatry covers a much larger area than just psychological or socio-psychological processes. Psychiatry is a medical discipline with a broad biological field of application. If we operate with the concept “ biological psychiatry”, then we are not talking about a subdiscipline, but about a working direction within psychiatry.

Biological and psychiatric studies use neuroanatomical and neuropathological, neurophysiological and psychophysiological, biochemical and pharmacological, neuroradiological, chronobiological, genetic and other methods.

Psychophysiology examines the relationship between physiological and psychological, including psychopathological, processes. Particular attention is paid to physiological processes that are associated with behavior and experiences. At the same time, studies are distinguished at the level of central brain activity (EEG and related methods) and at the level of peripheral activity (mainly autonomic functions, such as heart rate, blood pressure, galvanic skin response, temperature).

Neuropsychology is a field of study that studies the relationship between local and systemic disorders of brain structure or function, including limited loss of function (eg, aphasia, apraxia, cognitive impairment).

Psychopharmacology, the study of the influence of pharmacological agents on mental processes, is of great practical importance. It is divided into neuropsychopharmacology, with its experimental and biochemical direction, and clinical psychopharmacology, which is also partly experimental, but mainly has a therapeutic focus.

Clinical psychiatry- is the center of the circle described above, consisting of biological, psychological and other working disciplines. These various disciplines contribute to the development of fundamental knowledge in psychiatry that serves diagnostic, therapeutic and preventive work.

Thanks to the achievements of recent decades, psychiatry has become a purely therapeutic discipline. Many areas of mental health therapy have a scope of subdisciplines.

Psychotherapy is focused on treating patients using psychological methods. It is part of both psychiatric therapy and therapy in psychosomatically oriented medicine. The methods of this treatment are varied (they are described in a special chapter). The most important foundations of psychotherapy are laid in depth psychology (psychodynamics) and educational or behavioral psychology.

Psychopharmacotherapy(pharmacopsychiatry) is the drug treatment of mental illness. Currently, it forms the basis of somatic treatment methods for psychosis.

Sociotherapy(social psychiatry) covers the psychosocial, especially interpersonal, relationships of the mentally ill, since they can cause the disease, but to a greater extent they are important for the treatment and rehabilitation of patients. Such new directions as community psychiatry and ecopsychiatry (ecological psychiatry) have a similar application.

Social psychiatry examines the sociology of mental illness and includes the theory of the relationship between the mentally ill and society, as well as epidemiology and the main problems of psychiatric care.

Transcultural psychiatry(comparative-cultural psychiatry, ethnopsychiatry) examines the cultural sociological characteristics of different peoples, races and different cultural layers of the population and their significance for the occurrence and manifestation of mental illnesses. Significant transcultural differences have been found in a number of mental disorders. What is presented in this book cannot be completely transferred to the psychiatry of other cultural circles. In practical psychiatry, it is often difficult to understand a patient from immigrant or refugee workers, to determine his attitudes and behavior, even if there is sufficient verbal contact.

The universality of the tasks of psychiatric research and treatment of patients necessitates the joint activity of specialists from different professional groups. Along with doctors, nurses and caregivers, psychologists and teachers, social educators and social workers, employment and occupational therapists (occupational therapists), specialists in music and art, therapeutic exercises and physiotherapy, and in research institutions also pharmacologists and biochemists work in psychiatric institutions. and sociologists.

In terms of practical assistance to patients, psychiatry is divided into specialized branches. Thus, drug addicts and persons with intellectual retardation, the mentally ill of late age and mentally ill offenders are treated in special institutions, which, however, are not isolated from general psychiatry.

Psychiatry of late life(gerontopsychiatry, psychogeriatrics) - the study of mental illness in presenile and senile ages. These are two large age-related disciplines parallel to therapeutic geriatrics. Late-life psychiatry has not become an independent branch, like child and adolescent psychiatry, but represents a certain working area in psychiatry. Studies of mental illnesses in old people show that, apart from the emphasis on the age-related psyche, they largely correspond to mental disorders of middle age. Late-life psychiatry deals with both mentally ill people who are approaching old age and mental illnesses that first appear in late life. It should be noted that the number of patients in the second group is currently increasing significantly due to the increase in the average life expectancy of the population. Research and practice in the field of late-life psychiatry in Germany needs to be significantly intensified. In this book, the features of the manifestation of the disease and treatment of late-aged patients are presented in a special chapter.

Forensic psychiatry covers legal issues affecting the mentally ill, including the assessment of free will, judicial responsibility and judicial decisions, and the treatment and rehabilitation of mentally ill offenders. It is related to criminology, which deals primarily with the criminal activities of mentally healthy individuals. The book presents the most important legal definitions for psychiatry.

The situation is different from this subdiscipline with child and adolescent psychiatry (pedopsychiatry), which has become an independent medical branch. Her work area is developmental pathology and the clinic of mental disorders from infancy to adolescence. On the one hand, it is based on pediatrics, psychiatry and neurology, and on the other, it contains components of developmental psychology, depth psychology and restorative pedagogy. Therapy and recommendations extend not only to children and adolescents, but also to their parents and caregivers.

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry is an independent science and at the same time the basis for adult psychiatry, since the psychopathology of child development creates the basis for many forms and manifestations of psychopathology in adults. A clear age division of both areas is impossible due to the variability of mental and social maturation. In the judicial field, juvenile psychiatry, in connection with the relevant judicial law, covers the age of up to 21 years. Only the joint activity and interweaving of child and adolescent psychiatry with adult psychiatry, as we try to define in this book, can help correct the critical phase of adolescence.

In conclusion, we should name two neighboring disciplines with which psychiatry is closely related by common methods and overlapping problems.

Psychosomatic medicine- this is the doctrine of diseases, the somatic manifestations of which are caused by mental factors or are associated with the mental sphere. More precisely, modern psychosomatic medicine deals mainly with four groups of diseases: functional disorders of organs with autonomic disorders; conversion syndromes; psychosomatic diseases in the narrow sense of the word (with morphologically determined changes in organs: bronchial asthma, duodenal ulcer, ulcerative colitis, etc.); The fourth group is better defined as somatopsychic disorders, for example, depressive and other mental disorders that are a reaction to a severe somatic illness.

At the same time, functional and conversion syndromes have different features in psychiatric and psychosomatic practice. However, the proximity and even relatedness of these two groups of diseases causes special interest in the somatopsychic and psychosomatic aspects of all diseases. By comprehending the meaning of the subject (von Weizsäcker; see Fig. 15 on color incl.), i.e., the individuality of the experiencing and suffering person, psychosomatic medicine leads not only to identifying the cause of the disease, but also to understanding the meaning and assessing the severity of painful manifestations during the interaction of its somatic and mental principles. Ultimately, psychosomatics is the medicine of the unity of the somatic and mental. It covers the entire sphere of existing relationships between somatic and mental processes (spiritual-physical problem), including experimental studies of these connections.

Psychosomatic medicine, as a new branch of science, introduces its own specialization name for doctors: “Psychosomatics/Psychotherapy.” Such a formulation can lead to an erroneous interpretation, since these two concepts are not synonymous and are not directly related to each other. Unfortunately, the 1992 medical manual introduces an equally vague formulation - “Psychotherapeutic medicine”.

Neurology- this is the doctrine of organic diseases of the central, peripheral and autonomic nervous systems (including certain muscle diseases), i.e., about diseases in the clinic of which mental disorders are not leading. However, neurology and psychiatry in Germany have long been linked together as the science of treating nervous diseases. The acquisition of independence by each of them corresponded to the difference in the tasks facing them. Common to both disciplines is a range of research and diagnostic methods in many overlapping areas, especially in organic brain diseases.

With the further penetration of related and related disciplines into the working areas of psychiatry, more and more literature appears on the possibilities of its various applications.

One of the poets dedicated this verse to psychiatrists. Poems are verses, jokes are jokes, but, unfortunately, the opinion that a psychiatrist deals exclusively with “crazy people” has been in the public consciousness for many years. It is better to bypass it by the tenth road. Is it really? Are psychiatrists really that scary when you need to go to them? And finally, where can I find such a doctor? Let's try to figure it out together.

Somatic medicine and psychiatry

Let's start from the very beginning. The vital processes of the human body are influenced by two types of phenomena. Material phenomena are processes that occur in the organs and systems of the body. Violations in them are corrected by somatic medicine.

Another type of phenomena are mental processes, which are a product of brain activity. In case of violations in this system, psychiatry corrects them. This science got its name for a reason, because “psychiatrist” is translated as “healer of souls.” In ancient times, textbooks on psychiatry were called “Mental Illnesses.” Consequently, when the psyche is disturbed, disorders of mental activity (consciousness, thinking, will) arise. It is these disorders that psychiatrists deal with. If the pathology is directly related to damage to an organ, for example, the brain, then it is treated by other specialists - neurologists. But first things first.

What is the difference between a neurologist, neuropsychiatrist, psychotherapist, psychologist and psychiatrist?

A psychiatrist treats diseases that are directly related to mental disorders. There are often cases when a person, discovering signs of a developing mental illness, simply does not know which doctor to turn to for help. In addition, many people do not turn to a psychiatrist due to the large number of prejudices surrounding this specialty.

Because of this, people try to first seek help from a psychologist, neurologist, and some even resort to the help of psychics, which is a completely frivolous act. Many people do this because, in fact, they do not understand the differences between these specialists.

A psychologist is not a doctor

Remember that a psychologist is not a doctor. Psychological education has significant differences from medical education, and, therefore, this specialist does not have the right to make a diagnosis.

Therefore, it is necessary to contact a psychologist in case of a difficult life situation, any psychological problems, and not an illness. Of course, psychologists also provide assistance to mentally ill people, but only after an examination by a psychiatrist and a diagnosis.

Who is a psychoneurologist and psychotherapist?

Recently, such a specialty as psychoneurologist has emerged. In fact, it's just another name for a psychiatrist. This was done to increase the emotional comfort of the patient - contacting such a doctor does not cause fear or shame.

Both doctors and psychologists work in the field of psychotherapy. Therefore, if you decide to consult a psychotherapist about a mental disorder, first make sure that he has a higher medical education.

But it’s better to overcome prejudices and immediately consult a psychiatrist. Currently, such a concept as “psychiatric registration” has been abolished, and, therefore, going to see a doctor will not entail any consequences.

Early consultation with a doctor is the key to successful treatment of the disease

In order to successfully cure a mental illness, it is necessary to find out the cause of it as early as possible. By the way, this is why turning to alternative medicine methods significantly complicates the treatment and diagnosis of the disease.

Very often, precious time is lost, which leads to the progression of the disease. Some patients are brought to the clinic in a state of acute psychosis, which requires drug intervention and long-term therapy. Moreover, often the disease becomes chronic, and cure becomes impossible.

Therefore, it is very important to see the right doctor on time, undergo all examinations and receive the necessary treatment.

What is mental health? How does mental pathology manifest itself?

Mental illness is a condition in which, due to mental disorders, a person ceases to adequately perceive the reality around him. Most often it manifests itself by changes in human behavior.

Like any other illness, mental disorders are much easier to treat if you consult a doctor in a timely manner. But people are afraid to see a psychiatrist because of prejudice, out of fear that others will consider them “abnormal” and “dangerous.” There is also an opinion about forced isolation in psychiatric clinics.

It is believed that only people with a sick psyche need the help of a psychiatrist, while an adult can deal with his mental problems and inner experiences on his own. Because of all of the above, mental illness becomes more severe, and sometimes even provokes the development of various somatic pathologies. In such situations, sometimes even the doctor, not to mention the patient, is powerless, and health is lost for quite a long time.

Delaying contact with a doctor is dangerous to your health!

Many people delay seeing a doctor. And this has led to the fact that currently mental illnesses rank third in prevalence in the world (after heart and vascular diseases and malignant tumors). At the moment, about half of the patients who go to the clinic need the help of a psychiatrist or psychotherapist.

A huge number of patients suffer from depression. Currently, there is a change in the clinical picture of this disease: it takes the form of many somatic diseases, which significantly complicates their diagnosis. Sometimes, before seeing a psychiatrist, such patients undergo numerous courses of treatment or even undergo surgical interventions.

Who is a psychiatrist and what does he do?

A psychiatrist is a doctor who deals with the treatment, diagnosis and prevention of diseases associated with mental disorders. In the process of medical education, doctors of this profile acquire knowledge in psychology, psychiatry and psychotherapy. Consequently, a psychiatrist is able not only to make a diagnosis of a mental disorder, but also to prescribe the necessary procedures to eliminate it, to connect the identified disease with somatic pathology and to explain the necessary measures to prevent recurrence of the disease.

The main means of treatment for a psychiatrist is drug therapy. However, it is supplemented with psychotherapy - they explain to the patient the causes and methods of treating his illness, provide moral support, and mobilize the patient’s own strength to fight the disease. Also, modern psychiatrists participate in the development of social programs aimed at preventing the development of mental disorders in the population, developing healthy lifestyle skills, and solving social, expert and ethical-legal issues.

Where can I find a psychiatrist?

There is a psychoneurological clinic in every district city. Psychiatrists also work in city clinics. If you wish, you can also go to a private clinic. Do not be afraid of going to a psychoneurological clinic - thanks to the abolition of psychiatric registration, no one will know about your visit to this specialist.

All patients at the dispensary can be divided into two categories. The first category includes patients with serious mental disorders who are treated either inpatiently or regularly (at least once a month) visit their doctor. The second group contains patients with mild, minor disorders, who receive consultations and the necessary treatment from a doctor from time to time.

Regardless of the type of institution (psychoneurological dispensary, clinic), all patients receive qualified assistance from a psychiatrist, as well as social workers and psychologists. If you or a member of your family have been registered with a mental disorder, then you have the right to be observed in any specialized institution in your city, since you will need to visit your doctor quite often to receive medications and monitor your progress.