# Are psychiatrists REAL doctors?



## Zack (Apr 20, 2013)

Or did they get bad grades in medical school so they could only go into psychiatry?


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## kast (Nov 22, 2012)

I can't be bothered Googling it, but I think they have to complete medicine and then specialise in psychiatry, as opposed to psychologists who study that from the beginning and aren't trained to be medical doctors. So the psychiatrists are doctors, and that's why they mostly just prescribe medication and suck at therapy.


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## Sacrieur (Jan 14, 2013)

I don't know, maybe you should write a sociology paper on it.


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## PickleNose (Jul 11, 2009)

Nope.


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## Haruhi (Jul 8, 2011)

the mind is a confusing thing to understand, could get many advice from people but i guess only a psychiatrist will truely understand/be able to assist you.

so i guess they deserve the right to be called "doctors" /shrug


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## Amphoteric (Sep 11, 2011)

Yes, they are. You need to have a degree in medicine to become one. They're doctors who have specialized in treating mental disorders.
Psychologists instead need just a degree in psychology.

That's why psychiatrists can prescribe you pills while psychologists can only offer you a sympathetic look and nods while you pour your heart out to them.


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## Fruitcake (Jan 19, 2012)

I voted yes because I was answering the thread title instead of the poll title.


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## Consider (May 1, 2013)

Pdoc - a doctor of minds. 
M.D. - a doctor of bodies.


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## Nekomata (Feb 3, 2012)

Maybe, on some level.. dunno <.<;


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## Zack (Apr 20, 2013)

I know they are _technically_ medical doctors, but psychiatry is mostly pap.


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## Implicate (Feb 1, 2011)

Don't know, but I certainly have never come across a decent one.


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## Cam1 (Dec 4, 2011)

Steve300 said:


> Or did they get bad grades in medical school so they could only go into psychiatry?


I'm pretty they study psychiatry because they want to become psychiatrists.

There are several types if doctors, I don't know why people assume the only "real ones" are medical doctors.


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## millenniumman75 (Feb 4, 2005)

They are - they are being treated like them in terms of insurance now, too. Extra charges and all.Thanks, Obamacare. :sigh


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## panopticon (Nov 14, 2010)

Psychiatrists are _physicians_ who specialise in mental health.


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## fanatic203 (Jun 23, 2010)

What's with these polls where the thread title is opposite of the poll title?? The results are meaningless.


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## peril (Jan 7, 2012)

Amphoteric said:


> Yes, they are. You need to have a degree in medicine to become one. They're doctors who have specialized in treating mental disorders.


This. Plus saying they aren't "real" doctors is like saying mental illness isn't real and we are all fakers here.


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## GenoWhirl (Apr 16, 2011)

If I voted Yes in terms to say their not real I didn't mean it, I meant to vote Yes as in they are legit. My psychiatrist has helped me out so much to say anything other than such would be twatish.


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## To22 (Apr 6, 2012)

Steve300 said:


> I know they are _technically_ medical doctors, but psychiatry is mostly pap.


I don't know about that. Have you tried any drugs aimed to alter your mind? They tend to have significant effects. With that being said, their profession is much like a traditional Doctor isn't it? It's not like their influence is left for interpretation, their significance is apparent.


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## Zack (Apr 20, 2013)

Theologic said:


> I don't know about that. Have you tried any drugs aimed to alter your mind? They tend to have significant effects. With that being said, their profession is much like a traditional Doctor isn't it? It's not like their influence is left for interpretation, their significance is apparent.


Yes, plenty. But psychiatrists just prescribe these in ignorance. They have their little book that they worship and consult and they just throw drugs at people randomly which sometimes do something and sometimes don't. It is just hokum.


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## enfield (Sep 4, 2010)

welp, i just voted no because i was answering the thread question instead of the poll question.


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## nubly (Nov 2, 2006)

Steve300 said:


> Yes, plenty. But psychiatrists just prescribe these in ignorance. They have their little book that they worship and consult and they just throw drugs at people randomly which sometimes do something and sometimes don't. It is just hokum.


You make it sound as if MDs don't do this.


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## wrongnumber (May 24, 2009)

I messed up my vote because I wasn't sure of the question. But yes, psychiatrists are 'real' doctors.



Amphoteric said:


> Psychologists instead need just a degree in psychology.





peril said:


> This. Plus saying they aren't "real" doctors is like saying mental illness isn't real and we are all fakers here.


A degree is not enough. You actually require a Masters or PhD in order to become a registered psychologist.


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## Zack (Apr 20, 2013)

enfield said:


> welp, i just voted no because i was answering the thread question instead of the poll question.


There is no ambiguity. Surely it is clear what I am implying? I don't like psychiatrists. I don't like them in the least. They are Gnostic solar beings.


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## Implicate (Feb 1, 2011)

millenniumman75 said:


> They are - they are being treated like them in terms of insurance now, too. Extra charges and all.Thanks, Obamacare. :sigh


Does any thought ever cross your mind that you don't feel compelled to blame Obama for something? Maybe if you stopped putting a political spin on everything and blaming it for everything bad in the world you might find some happiness your life is lacking.


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## millenniumman75 (Feb 4, 2005)

Implicate said:


> Does any thought ever cross your mind that you don't feel compelled to blame Obama for something? Maybe if you stopped putting a political spin on everything and blaming it for everything bad in the world you might find some happiness your life is lacking.


Excuse me?!

My insurance has already gone up 15% out of my paycheck in one year.
There is no political spin, Obamacare is making changes that a lot of people, regardless of party, aren't going to like!


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## peril (Jan 7, 2012)

wrongnumber said:


> A degree is not enough. You actually require a Masters or PhD in order to become a registered psychologist.


Yes, I am very much aware of that. I still don't get why you quoted me though. I was merely pointing out the absurdity of the OP.


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## Earl of Lemongrab (May 15, 2012)

nubly said:


> You make it sound as if MDs don't do this.


How many times does this need to be said?

Psychiatrists ARE medical doctors. They received the doctorate of medicine just like general practitioners/physicians/family doctors have, but they specialized in mental health rather than physical.


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## laura024 (Aug 11, 2006)

How rude. Psychiatrists are trained as medical doctors and specialize in mental illnesses because they want to. They use the medical model instead of the psychological approach to mental disorders.


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## enfield (Sep 4, 2010)

Steve300 said:


> There is no ambiguity. Surely it is clear what I am implying? I don't like psychiatrists. I don't like them in the least. They are Gnostic solar beings.


the thread asked me if psychiastrists were REAL doctors, but then the poll wanted to know if they were QUASI doctors. not the same thing! some of us (fruitcake, me, others) answered the poll with the title in our minds. and regression to the mean, which cheimison says is a statistical tendency when applied to individual cases but a mathematical inevitability in the long run, tells us that _in the limit_ an equal percentage of people who had wanted to pick yes or no (and that percentage doesn't seem tiny) answered the reverse way they intended (unless reading the poll properly is correlated to ones opinion of psychiatrists, but i highly doubt that). and you know what _that_ means? it means that in the limit your poll is plagued by serious methodological flaws! and you're a chemist by training. how could this be.

it is clear what you're implying, though, that you don't buy the anthropological grandeur the psychiatrists want us to believe in, or any of that other nonsense.


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## diamondheart89 (Mar 21, 2011)

What is this thread even? Of course they are real doctors.


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## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

They are of course real doctors, but aren't necessarily comparable to other types of doctors. This is just my opinion, but they are definitely in a different class, given that the whole process of diagnosing and prescribing medication is based on the doctor's subjective opinion about the patient. There are no medical tests that prove and lead to a proper, defined diagnosis. One doctor might see Bipolar Disorder, while another doctor might subjectively see someone with depression and anxiety. One doctor might see OCD, while another sees Schizophrenia. Disorders that can be misdiagnosed that are treated in very different ways, can be troublesome. 

It's all their own interpretation that they go by, before prescribing very strong medications. They prescribe based on their own preferences - doctors favour certain medications over others, some stay away from certain things while others love prescribing them, it's all subjective. And whether or not the drug works, is also subjective based on what they see, and not what any test says.

There is no "Okay, the tests say you have this, and now this is the proper drug to take that all medical doctors agree will cure you" and also no test to say the person is better and can come off the meds. It's all just the doctor's opinion. 

They definitely are real medical doctors, but I can see how some would want to put them in a different category than other doctors that use physical testing and concrete diagnostics. One doctor is treating something testable and visible, and the other doctor is diagnosing something untestable and subjective.


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## wrongnumber (May 24, 2009)

peril said:


> Yes, I am very much aware of that. I still don't get why you quoted me though. I was merely pointing out the absurdity of the OP.


Well because you quoted the same bit which had the sentence that was erroneous in it. But you deleted that particular sentence. I must have misread it. It just looked like you agreed with it, so I quoted you and her to educate. Nevermind.


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## PickleNose (Jul 11, 2009)

Quack
Quack
Quack


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## Implicate (Feb 1, 2011)

millenniumman75 said:


> Excuse me?!
> 
> My insurance has already gone up 15% out of my paycheck in one year.
> There is no political spin, Obamacare is making changes that a lot of people, regardless of party, aren't going to like!


It is a spin you are placing on it when making a political reply that has NOTHING to do with the topic of the thread. Any shots you can get in, you will find a way. If you couldn't read the title, it was asking whether or not you think the psychologists are real doctors, not about blaming a politician for your health care costs, which by the way have been rising annually even before The Affordable Care Act was implemented, and yes, that's what it is called, not "Obamacare".

I do, however, appreciate you furthering the point I was trying to make.


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## TheAzn (Jan 13, 2012)

Given that they can prescribe medication, yes the psychiatrists are real doctors.


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## tea111red (Nov 8, 2005)

Yeah. Some don't just specialize in psychiatry, either. I've had ones who were also anesthesiologists and neurologists (real doctors).


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## PickleNose (Jul 11, 2009)

PickleNose said:


> Nope.


 They are not.


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## nubly (Nov 2, 2006)

PickleNose said:


> Quack
> Quack
> Quack


Heh. This could be taken the other way. "If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it must be a duck".


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## cozynights (Mar 19, 2013)

I don't understand why ANYONE would say that they aren't?


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## PickleNose (Jul 11, 2009)

cozynights said:


> I don't understand why ANYONE would say that they aren't?


 I'm sorry.


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## anonomousey (Apr 14, 2013)

it takes like 12 years to become a psychiatrist..they are definetly qualified lol


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## SnowFlakesFire (Aug 23, 2012)

They are not even real humans

meh.. Why the title and poll question are different?


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## Sice (May 11, 2013)

By definition, yes. They have a PhD in a medical field. It just so happens that all they know how to do is poorly diagnose people and write prescriptions.


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## berlingot (Nov 2, 2005)

just because some psychiatrists are terrible doesn't mean the whole lot of them aren't doctors.


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## Raeden (Feb 8, 2013)

People don't go to medical school to become psychiatrists. Med students are exposed to different kinds of specialties during their 3rd/4th year of medical school, and they specialize during residency. Psychiatry is not a "lesser" medical discipline.


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## arnie (Jan 24, 2012)

Don't make a poll with an opposite question of the title. It's confusing.


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## Xenos (Jun 24, 2012)

I'm not even sure doctors are real doctors.


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## James_Russell (Aug 26, 2011)

Of course they're Doctors, they have a doctorate and train for 12 years.

Whether they are good/useful doctors is a whole other issue for another thread.


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