The difference is clear. When you see a psychiatrist, like Krishan Gupta, M.D. at The Ridgewood Clinics, you're benefitting from both the clinical expertise of a medical doctor, as well as the unique perspective and insight of a psychotherapist. You're seeing an expert able to view physical and mental illness in an integrated way by taking into consideration the related aspects of body and mind. You're receiving individualized treatment, based on both disciplines. And you're seeing the difference Dr. Gupta can make.

  Unlike a psychologist, a psychiatrist is a fully qualified medical specialist who has received a degree in both clinical medicine and psychiatry. Psychiatrists have a unique perspective in being able to diagnose, manage, and care for people with mental illnesses and emotional problems while keeping both their emotional and physical states in perspective. In addition, psychiatrists are able to offer expert psychological and medical help in the balance required for the individual patient.

 The psychiatrist's choice of a particular treatment is based on its proven effectiveness in treating the symptom or illness. Psychiatric treatments are tested and researched in the same rigorous way that other medical treatments are scrutinized.

  Treatment methods can be physical, psychological, or involve medication. However, most treatment regimens are a combination of these approaches.

  Medical psychotherapy is an important method of treatment in which the psychiatrist and patient discuss problems during regularly scheduled sessions. The psychiatrist assists the patient to understand the basis of his or her problems and works with the patient to find a solution. Depending upon the extent of the problem, such treatment may consist of a few sessions over several weeks or many sessions over a longer period of time.

  Psychotherapy, which means talking treatment, may be conducted with an individual patient, a group of patients, or a family and may be aimed at behavioral change or the gaining of emotional understanding.

  Today, numerous medications are being prescribed for the treatment of psychiatric illnesses. Such medications can now effectively remove symptoms and alter the course of illnesses. In some instances, medications can be life saving, for example, in a case of severe depressive illness.

  Psychiatrists are highly experienced in prescribing and monitoring these medications.

 


   Some psychiatrists gain additional training and experience within the field of psychiatry. The specialties that have developed include child and adolescent psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry, forensic psychiatry (concerned with legal, compensation and criminal cases), psychoanalysis, and psychotherapy. Psychiatrists also act as consultants in drug and alcohol programs and to community services. Within hospitals, they are commonly involved in liaison with other areas of medicine and surgery.

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