Psychologist - Contrast With Psychiatrist

Contrast With Psychiatrist

Although clinical psychologists and psychiatrists can be said to share a same fundamental aim—the alleviation of mental distress—their training, outlook, and methodologies are often quite different. Perhaps the most significant difference is that psychiatrists are licensed physicians. As such, psychiatrists often use the medical model to assess mental health problems and rely on psychotropic medications as the chief method of addressing mental health problems—although many also employ psychotherapy as well. Psychologists receive extensive training in psychological test administration, scoring, interpretation and reporting. Examples include the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory II (MMPI-II), the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Test IV (WAIS-IV), and the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory III (MCMI-III). These tests, along with others, help to inform diagnostic decisions and treatment planning. For example, in a medical center, a patient with a complicated clinical presentation who is being seen by a psychiatrist might be referred to a clinical psychologist for psychological testing to aid in diagnosis and treatment. In addition, psychologists (particularly those from PhD programs) spend several years in graduate school being trained to conduct behavioral research, including research design and advanced statistical analysis. While this training is available for physicians via dual MD/PhD programs, it is not typically included in medical education.

Psychologists generally do not prescribe medication, although there is a growing movement for clinical psychologists to have limited prescribing privileges. Clinical and other psychologists are experts at psychotherapy (typically clinical psychologists are trained in a number of psychological therapies, including, behavioural, cognitive, humanistic, existential, psychodynamic, and systemic approaches), and psychological testing (e.g. including neuropsychological testing). In two US states, specifically New Mexico and Louisiana, some psychologists with post-doctoral pharmacology training have been granted prescriptive authority for certain mental health disorders upon agreement with the patient's physician.