Most psychiatrists are no longer engaged in talk therapy, instead practicing their specialty almost solely to prescribe patients antidepressants and other psychotropic drugs, reports the New York Times.
The dramatic change in psychiatry is primarily because of the business dictates of healthcare delivery. Psychiatrists get paid more to prescribe and monitor the medications to upward of 1,200 patients in 15-minute sessions rather than engage in hourlong, talk-based treatments with 50 or 60 patients.
"I had to train myself not to get too interested in their problems and not to get sidetracked trying to be a semi-therapist," said Donald Levin, M.D., a Pennsylvania-based clinician who began practicing psychiatry in the early 1970s. Talk-based treatment now is almost solely the domain of less-costly psychotherapists and psychologists. According to a recent government survey, only 11 percent of the nation's psychiatrists engage in talk-based therapies.
"It's a practice that's very reminiscent of primary care," said Steven S. Sharfstein, chief executive officer of Sheppard Pratt Health System in Maryland and former president of the American Psychiatric Association. "They check up on people; they pull out the prescription pad; they order tests."
To learn more:
- read the New York Times article
- check out the Harvard Magazine article on psychiatry by prescription