How to combine psychiatry and psychology? Interview with Dr. Ignacio Vera

The relationship between psychiatry and psychology it gives rise to many misunderstandings, as not everyone understands how these two sciences complement each other.

And yet, if we want to understand what mental health is and how it is promoted, it is necessary to have a realistic view of the link between psychiatry and clinical psychology; a vision away from biases and old clichés and stereotypes.

• Related article: "Mental health: definition and characteristics according to psychology"

Understanding the role of the psychiatrist in a psychology center

This time we interview Dr. Ignacio Vera López, Psychiatrist associated with TAP Center, a psychological care clinic in Madrid, to explain what the work of a psychiatrist as an agent of intervention that supports teams of psychologists and handles cases that need care based on medicine.

Let's start with the basics: what is the role of a psychiatrist working in a center for psychological and psychiatric assistance? What type of patients does he see?

In some patients, I carry out the initial evaluation with the aim of guiding a diagnosis and establishing a plan of treatment in which both psychopharmacological treatment and interventions are integrated psychotherapeutic.

In other patients, it is the psychologists from the center itself or from other cabinets in the region who request an evaluation of patients who are in psychological treatment to determine the need to carry out a psychopharmacological intervention in order to promote a favorable evolution of the patient.

It is often assumed that psychiatrists limit themselves to prescribing psychotropic drugs. In what other ways can psychiatry intervene in people's health?

The origin of this belief seems to be in the medical training from which we psychiatrists start. However, the clinical diagnosis and the psychopharmacological approach are only two of the tools with which psychiatrists approach patients.

Training in psychotherapy is mandatory in our professional career and the psychotherapeutic approach, and social interventions constitute an essential part of our care work.

How do clinical psychology and psychiatry complement each other?

It is an absolutely necessary complementarity. Mental disorders cannot be conceived in the same way as the rest of organic diseases under a strictly medical paradigm, since which are the result of the interaction between biological factors, psychic functioning and the social environment in which the child is immersed. subject.

Psychotropic drugs can provide symptomatic relief, but work needs to be done psychotherapeutic that takes into account the subjectivity of the individual and ensure social contexts that dignify the person.

In many respects, the general view of the mental health branch of medicine is anchored in images from the 1960s and 1970s. What has changed the most in psychiatry in the last few decades?

It is true that clinical psychiatry has been linked in the popular imagination to asylum seclusions and the forced treatment of the "crazy" but it should not be forgotten that asylums arose to protect people with mental health problems from the social masses who wanted lynch them. In these institutions they were welcomed, not treated, since they were not considered sick, but different and potentially dangerous and unpredictable.

However, psychiatrists themselves have been the main promoters of the psychiatric reform that has humanized the treatment and treatment of people with mental disorders by eliminating long-standing abuses and fostering a holistic and humane view of disorders mental. This is without doubt the main achievement of psychiatry in the last 40 years.

We will probably see new discoveries and technological developments in the next few years that will help many patients. What are the most promising scientific advances in psychiatry?

Advances in psychopharmacology, the sophistication of neuroimaging techniques and the applications of genetics will undoubtedly continue to contribute to alleviating the discomfort of our patients.

However, advances in technoscience should not take us away from listening, which is what can truly allow us to understand the psychic suffering of each person.

The subjectivity of the individual crosses any symptomatic expression, so the integration between the advances in technoscience and listening to each story seem the main challenge facing psychiatry current.

Finally... could you explain a case of improvement of a patient that makes you feel especially proud?

It is difficult to choose a case. I am satisfied with being able to understand the discomfort of each of the patients and contribute to lessen the psychic suffering behind each story.

Dr. Ignacio Vera attends Centro Tap, located at Avenida de Manoteras number 8, Madrid.