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Orange County Psychiatry Is Available To Assist People With Mental Illness

By Cecile Ingram


Preparations to be admitted to a medical school start early. During your college years take courses in science, biology, math, chemistry and physics. Your grades must be excellent and your degree should be in one of the sciences. Volunteer work in a hospital setting helps you pursue the goal of practicing Orange County psychiatry.

There are four years of medical school before you are graduated. After that, you will be admitted into a residency program. For psychiatry, it is a four year program. While you are treating patients under supervision, you can decide which area of psychiatry you want to specialize in.

After finishing the four-year residency, you will take the state licensing exam. You can also take an exam to become board certified, thereby earning additional credentials that do not expire for ten years. Now you have fulfilled all the requirements needed to begin practicing medicine.

The diagnosing of the mental status of each patient starts with a thorough exam and mental assessment. There are psychological tests and a physical exam that are conducted. There are additional tests such as neuroimaging that are sometimes necessary. Each diagnosis must conform to the standards presented in the DSM, which is a manual giving the symptoms that identify each mental disorder.

Another reference book that is relied on is the ICD. Following diagnosis, treatment may include prescription medication and psychotherapy in an inpatient setting. Less severe disorders can be treated on an outpatient basis. A schedule of weekly or monthly appointments may be prescribed.

Around 1967, it was recognized that some treatments, usually those used on patients with severe disorders, were damaging and possibly dangerous. There was an operation that removed a portion of the frontal lobe of the brain. The lobotomy removed aggression, but, also left the patient in a damaged condition.

Another treatment that seemed to originate from a Frankenstein movie was electroconvulsive therapy. It used electric shock to bring a patient out of deep depression when nothing else worked. It also had the ability to break teeth and sometimes bones as the patient tensed up in response to the current running through the body.

A psychiatrist straddles the two worlds of medical practice. On one hand he is a medical school graduate who is familiar with all body organs and their functions and physical maladies. On the other, he is focused on the workings of the mind. These two facets are diverse, yet intertwined in each human being.

There are numerous mental disorders. A personality disorder or severe learning disability are conditions that can be treated. Methods are different than they were years ago. At one time, psychiatrists used to spend an hour with each patient. Now, the patient is in his or her office for ten minutes and gets a new prescription. The hour long sessions are with a psychologist.

The psychologist will meet with the psychiatrist to discuss what they can do that will best help the patient. However, the inpatient may have those sessions with the psychiatrist. A plan is altered to suit the needs of each patient.

There are subspecialities that may be included in available Orange County psychiatry. They include addiction, cross-cultural, forensic, social and child and adolescent specialties. These disorders and addictions are also treated successfully by a qualified psychiatrist who does not limit his practice to one of these subspecialists.




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