Psychiatrists assess all of your mental and physical symptoms. They make a diagnosis and work with you to develop a management plan for your treatment and recovery. Psychiatrists provide psychological treatment, prescribe medications and do procedures such as electroconvulsive therapy.

Because psychiatrists are trained medical doctors, they can prescribe medications, and they spend much of their time with patients on medication management as a course of treatment. Psychologists focus extensively on psychotherapy and treating emotional and mental suffering in patients with behavioral intervention.

A psychiatric disorder is a mental illness diagnosed by a mental health professional that greatly disturbs your thinking, moods, and/or behavior and seriously increases your risk of disability, pain, death, or loss of freedom