Difference between Psychologist and Psychiatrist

No matter what the difference is, both, psychologist and psychiatrist deal with people. Nevertheless, the difference lies in how they deal with people. To put it simply the difference between a psychologist and psychiatrist is that, a psychologist treats depressed and troubled patients with counseling and a psychiatrist treats the troubled patients with medication and counseling. Many of us use the words psychologist and psychiatrist as synonyms, due to our ignorance. To many asking the question 'what's the difference between psychologist and psychiatrist' may sound like a joke. Nonetheless, there is a major difference between the two. Read more on psychologist vs psychiatrist.

Difference in Terms of Education and Degrees
A psychiatrist and psychologist do study psychology, but there is a difference too. At the end of psychiatrist's academics, he/she receives a degree in medicine and a psychologist has to work his/her way from a bachelors degree in psychology up to the doctoral degree.

To elaborate further, a psychologist has to pursue Ph.D. or Psy.D, post graduation in psychology. It takes about five to seven years to complete a doctorate, which is followed by an internship of two years to get a license to practice. On the other hand psychiatrists are physicians who are trained to diagnose mental illnesses. After attending a medical course, a psychiatrist gets an M.D after he completes his post graduation in psychiatry. They can further choose their areas of specialization such as adolescent psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry, forensic psychiatry and so on.

Power of Prescribing
The basic difference between psychologist and psychiatrist, is that psychiatrist has the license to prescribe medication and a psychologists only treats the patient through counseling. A psychologist will tell you to use techniques like hypnosis and a psychiatrist will prescribe medication to get over mental instability. A psychiatrist can also treat a patient without medications.

Technique of Operation
Other than psychotherapy and research, psychologists use other techniques to verify and treat patients. Psychiatrists use less of tests as compared to psychologists. To examine personality disorders, a psychologist uses tests like Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) and Rorschach test. These tests help the psychologists to ascertain what the person thinks of himself/herself which forms the basis of treatment. The treatment also include neuropsychological tests which ascertain brain functioning. The test also shows damages, if any.

Who is a Therapist?
Often a therapist is misunderstood as a psychologist or a psychiatrist. A person holding a post graduate degree in CSW (Clinical Social Workers) and having a formal clinical training has the license to practice psychotherapy, whose mainstay is counseling. They, like psychologists do not have the right to prescribe medicines to any of their patients. However, a therapist can give the reference of a psychiatrist to his patient for further treatment.

Which One is Better?
If you are looking for this answer from a career point of view, then your interest is what matters. If your interest is towards research and analysis then being a psychologist would be the best career option. If your interest hold otherwise then being a psychiatrist works in your favor. If you are looking for an answer to this question from a patient point of view, then I would say it's your experience would answer the question.

The difference between psychologist and psychiatrist and therapist is not much, because they are finer distinctions of a larger blanket called psychology. Both psychologist and psychiatrist work with the human mind and its functioning. I hope this article has helped you see the difference between psychologist and psychiatrist.