• Question: What is the difference between Psychology and Psychiatry?

    Asked by anon-266918 to p, Hayley on 4 Nov 2020.
    • Photo: p

      p answered on 4 Nov 2020:

      This is a great question. I should start by saying that psychology and psychiatry have lots of overlap, and in every mental health team I have worked in, one of my colleagues is a psychiatrist and we work closely together. Our different skills and training can be used together to improve someone’s mental health as we have different ideas and perspectives of what might be helpful for that person who comes to see us. Psychiatry comes from a medical model, so psychiatrists work mostly with diagnosing and medication, although some also offer some types of talking therapies like CBT. Psychology is slightly different in that we work with formulations (my favourite part of being a psychologist) which is like putting together a jigsaw of someone’s life to help work out what work to do with them and we consider a range of things including behaviours, thoughts, feelings, social factors etc. As a psychologist I use different types of interventions so rather than prescribing medication (although there is an ongoing discussion around whether psychologists should be able to prescribe too) I use types of talking therapies and approaches like CBT, CFT, ACT and tailor my intervention to the individual’s specific difficulties rather than their diagnosis. However it gets a little bit confusing because to work as a psychologist we have to follow NICE guidelines which tell us what we should be offering patients based on the research for their condition e.g. if someone has a diagnosis of moderate level OCD then the guidelines state we should offer more than 10 sessions of CBT. So whilst we operate based on someone’s formulation and take into account a whole range of other information outside their diagnosis, we still have to keep this in mind when working with someone. Both careers take a long time to study for, and both are great options if you are interested in working in mental health. I hope my waffling explanation makes sense somewhat and feel free to send another question! Poppy 🙂

Comments

  • Photo: Natalie

    Natalie commented on :

    The biggest difference is that Psychiatrists are medical doctors. Psychiatrists diagnose illnesses and they treat people with medical and psychological needs. For example a psychiatrist will treat people with dementia and Parkinson’s disease. In both of these conditions the brain becomes more and more damged over time and they require medical treatment.

    There is a huge overlap between the two jobs and Poppy provides a great example of overlap.

    Here’s a website which helps to explain the difference… and might help you choose between careers!!!

    https://www.yourhealthinmind.org/psychiatry-explained/psychiatrists-and-psychologists

  • Photo: Naomi

    Naomi commented on :

    Psychiatrists train as doctors first and then specialise in psychiatry. Psychologists study psychology first and then specialise in a wide range of different areas – forensic, clinical, counselling, educational and health psychology are just some of the options. So whilst a psychiatrist’s background training is in medicine, a psychologist’s background is in understanding human behaviour.

    In practice in the health service, psychiatrists are the people who can prescribe drugs. They may use other types of interventions but they can all prescribe drugs. Psychologists cannot prescribe drugs and will use a range of non-medical interventions, including psychological therapy.

  • Photo: Mona-Lisa

    Mona-Lisa commented on :

    Psychiatrists are doctors who have studied medicine at University and go on to undertake specialist post graduate training in mental health . They are able to diagnose and offer a variety of treatment including medication. Some psychiatrists also undergo training and deliver some psychological therapies.

    Psychologists study psychology in university and also have a variety of postgraduate training available . For clinical psychologists in mental health there are opportunities to undertake post graduate training clinical training and it also involves some academic work . A clinical psychologist in mental health is able to deliver a wide rage of therapies and undertake /contribute to the formulation of patients’ difficulties/ needs