The 7 differences between a psychologist and a psychiatrist

Confusing the work of a psychologist and a psychiatrist is more common than you might believe. This is mainly due to their field of action, since both work with people who have some type of psychological affectation. and / or emotional, and through an approach and intervention plan they can give you the resolution they need to recover from your trouble.

However, these two branches, although they have some similarities, actually cover different problems of the patients and their way of intervening has substantial differences.

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However, if you still cannot observe their differences or do not know what each of these branches of mental health treat, then we invite you to stay in this article where we will talk about the most important differences between a psychologist and a psychiatrist.

What does a psychologist do?

We will begin by explaining the work of a psychologist. In general terms, a psychologist is one who studies, analyzes and intervenes in human behavior with the purpose of finding a resolution and facilitating the adaptation of the person with his mind and with the Exterior. It should be noted that the psychologist can specialize in many different areas of psychology, because this science It is very extensive, as is the case of social, school, organizational, criminalistic, sports psychologists, etc.

For the purposes of this article we will focus on clinical and health psychologists, who have greater similarities with psychiatrists. These clinical and health psychologists are in charge of the evaluation, diagnosis and intervention of patients with some type of trauma, mental impairment or disorder that affects your life, in order to prevent its evolution or seek adaptive ways to resolve said trouble.

The role of psychiatrists

On the other hand we have psychiatrists, who are actually mental health doctors and they are in charge of diagnosing and addressing mental illnesses from their physiology, generally through pharmacological treatment and evolution sessions.

Although he has a close relationship with the patient and chat sessions are established with him to measure his improvement, he focuses more on restore correct biochemistry of neuronal function, reestablish levels of released hormones, and compensate for altered composition or damaged.

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Main differences between a psychologist and a psychiatrist

Now that we have established and clarified the role of both the psychologist and the psychiatrist, we can focus on the main differences that serve to distinguish them.

1. Academic preparation

It is perhaps the most remarkable difference between the two experts in the area of ​​mental health. Despite sharing similar knowledge of their field of development and dealing with people who have psychological, emotional and / or behavioral problems, psychiatrists must first study medicine and then specialize in psychiatry and do their residency in a hospital, therefore they are specialists in psychiatry.

For their part, psychologists do not need to be doctors to deal with patients with mental illnesses, but they study psychology and then they specialize in the area of ​​clinical and / or health psychology, where they can treat patients within hospitals or have their own consulting room.

So we can say that the career of psychiatrist is much longer than that of clinical psychologists, since their training it is deeper in terms of knowing the human mind from a biological and physiological point of view and its neuronal functioning. For their part, psychologists, despite also knowing the biochemical functioning of the human mind, are trained with knowledge of the influence of dynamics sociocultural in people and their relationship with mental disorders, being their training more focused on understanding the behavior and biopsychosocial causes of any emotional affectation.

2. Patient approach

This is another very notable difference between the two specialists and it is about the approach they take when dealing with the patient and her problem. In this sense, a psychologist has a heterogeneous position, taking into account the patient's interaction with his social environment, since he considers that mental alterations are not alien to the cultural context and the quality of the interpersonal interactions that the patient possesses. In addition, he must know his situation thoroughly in order to establish an adaptive and functional intervention plan.

On the other hand, the psychiatrist's approach always tends to be more biological, that is, it focuses on the imbalance and alterations that are manifested in the normal physiological and chemical functions of the patient and what is the best pharmacological treatment to be able to tackle it. The ultimate goal of it is to reverse the damage that has been caused to the neuronal and hormonal interaction, regulate it, decrease it or improve it. For psychiatrists, mental illnesses are almost exclusively due to these alterations and the interpersonal state of the patient is a consequence of it.

3. Types of approach

As is to be expected from its different types of approach towards the patient, both professionals have completely different types of approach, although this does not mean that they cannot work together on certain occasions, when a patient needs both of the pharmacological intervention and of an adaptive plan to be able to function normally in their environment.

In general, this collaboration occurs with patients with mild mental disorders or who have advanced enough in his psychiatric treatment and his chemical levels are regulated to be able to concentrate on a therapy psychological.

However, more specifically, psychiatrists approach problems from a purely medical sense, that is, they are based in terms of normality and abnormality to catalog the emotional and mental alterations that the patient may present and his final objective is to bring him to a state of balance and functional organic.

While psychologists, for their part, assess the severity of the patient's problem according to his level of maladjustment in the development environment of him, taking into account that, the greater the adaptive affectation, the greater the severity of the disorder Present. For this reason they focus on determining the origin of the pathology and what development factors of the individual and their social, work or family environment have affected their evolution.

4. Objectives to be met

The ultimate goal pursued by a psychologist is to understand and analyze mental processes, the affective state and the patient's behavior, so that he can interpret it for himself and thus can face his problem through psychological intervention.

It is important that there is adequate feedback from the psychologist, because this makes the patient take awareness of his situation and can perceive the severity of his maladjustment and that it needs to be improved or regulated. In turn, it is necessary that there is a high level of commitment on the part of the patient, since otherwise, the intervention will not have favorable results.

For his part, the psychiatrist seeks that the person understands that his condition is of a biological nature, it is say that it has an alteration or mismatch in its organic functionality (of chemical origin or physiological). Therefore, to improve it is necessary to undergo a pharmacological treatment with which you must be able to adapt to lead a better life and adequate mental health.

5. Problems they treat

As psychologists focus on the social environment of the person and their interaction with their environment, the mental problems they deal with are actually mild to moderate disorders. In this sense, reference is made to those mental illnesses that can be intervened through psychological treatment, for example, anxiety disorders, depression, nutritional, sleep, personality, emotional, behavioral, child development and others that are in their early stage of manifestation.

In case of dealing with diseases with more serious or advanced disorders, they will need the multidisciplinary help of the psychiatry area. and other specializations according to the need and the particular condition of the patient.

While psychiatrists, because of their medical training and extensive knowledge in the neurochemistry of the human mind, can treat with more severe mental disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolarity, major depression, psychotic disorders, etc. That is, disorders that can be aggravated without the person maintaining the corresponding pharmacological treatment.

6. Treatments

Why is drug treatment important in psychiatric patients? The role of these drugs is to regulate neurological and hormonal activity in the brain, so that the proper balance is established.

When there is an increase or decrease in the levels of hormones and neurotransmitters in the brain, It is when some of the mental disorders and emotional imbalance of the people take place. Therefore, one of the effective interventions that alleviates symptoms is through this type of treatment.

Psychologists, on the other hand, focus on performing treatments according to the patient's need. There are those that specialize in a single approach (behavioral, cognitive, humanistic, psychodynamic, etc.) while there are others that have a multiple approach. Treatment generally consists of an observation phase, an analysis phase, and an intervention phase, where the psychologist becomes familiar with the patient's situation and the factors that can activate the symptomatology.

Then, carry out an action plan which will make the patient able to face her problem within the office, and at the same time At the same time, he learns tools that can serve him in the future in his daily life, to avoid relapsing into problems. Similar.

7. Duration of the intervention

As far as the consultation is concerned, for psychiatrists a session rarely exceeds 20 minutesas it focuses on finding out the advancement or retreat of the patient, so that you can make the changes and pertinent adjustments in the treatment, depending on the improvement and the functionality that is observed in the patient.

Meanwhile, the sessions of the psychologists are more extensive, between 45-60 minutes depending on the problem presented, and the intervention takes place in a minimum of 7 sessions until it lasts longer than being necessary. Apart from evaluating the evolution or regression of the patient, what is sought is to delve deeply into the psychological and emotional conflict, to find its best resolution.