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aaae2

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Frankly I fail to see how "psyche" is so different than "mental". Both are loaded terms but seem to capture best what we do. (and so my vote goes to "healing of the soul" - has a more "romantic" tone as he noted).

The author also seems to have an axe to grind against a more analytical way of thinking, as opposed to the "evidence-based" approach. The reality is that intersubjectivity is inescapable and part and parcel in the field and the analytic tradition enriches our understanding rather than cloud it. You don't have a patient to apply "evidence-based" medicine on if you cannot connect.
 
aaae2 said:
blogs.scientificamerican.com

Maybe We Should Call Psychiatry Something Else

Research shows that changing the name could help reduce the stigma of mental illness
blogs.scientificamerican.com blogs.scientificamerican.com

Thoughts on this article? Would changing the term help the public to distinguish between psychiatry and psychology better?
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Have also seen neurological diversification specialist (NDS doctor for short) suggested as a possible alternate name.
 
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aaae2 said:
Have also seen neurological diversification specialist (NDS doctor for short) suggested as a possible alternate name.
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This just seems...horrible to me.

Changing names doesn't do a whole lot if, as TexasPhysician mentioned, you don't make efforts to address the stigma itself.
 
Changing names of things to reduce stigma is not helpful if society doesn’t actually become more kind as well.

For example look at terms like idiot, *****, ******, etc. I have no doubt intellectually disabled will be a slur within a couple decades, but maybe I don’t have enough hope in humanity.
 
A lot of his thoughts on the field are dated, which is odd considering that he is a resident. Psychiatry has more applicants than it has had in quite some time and there is rapidly growing interest in the field. He seems to focus on lack of respect, stigma, and misperceptions. He would rather change the name of the field than do what actually needs to be done: educating others as to what psychiatry actually is and psychiatrists actually are. We don't need aname change, we just need a 21st century PR campaign.
 
aaae2 said:
Have also seen neurological diversification specialist (NDS doctor for short) suggested as a possible alternate name.
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For me, that's an awful name. The last thing we need is more confusing terms that have to be reduced into yet another acronym to be useable.
This is an interesting article. Personally, I'm fond of being a Psychiatrist. People's reaction to the term often says a lot about their preconceptions and that in itself can be useful "grist for the mill" in exploring maladaptive cognitions. Psychiatry has a checkered history that can be problematic, yes, but so do many of our patients. And so does surgery. Yet no one wants to renames surgeons as "intracorporal organ technicians", ICTs or something to attract patients. I agree we should address the underlying issues rather than gloss over it all with new signs, business cards, flashy websites, and glossy brochures.
 
The article is 3 years old, so not completely sure of the relevance or whether there actually is any push to rename things. I don't think a name change is indicated, as have personally found that lay people's understanding of mental health has improved and stigma around seeking help seems to be decreasing. Most of my patients see me as just another one of their specialist doctors, whereas the same kind of change amongst doctors has been much slower. I think this may be due to longstanding perceptions from other medical practitioners about psychiatry being not prestigious/low paying/option of last resort etc, as well as having little awareness of available services.

I can think of a few local things that have changed attitudes. In the last decade or so our government has allowed for subsidised psychologist consultations, and as this has increased contact with professionals there has been a flow on effect for patients referred or recommend to see a psychiatrist. There are also big differences in the environment and type of care provided in the public and private system, and in the 90s legislation was passed to that resulted in a big increase in the take up of private health insurance which gave more people the choice to access the latter. I think most people who have had private psychiatric admissions have had positive experiences of care, which has also translates to improved perceptions. Then there is the effect of celebrities speaking up about their own mental illness experiences which I think has increased acceptability to a certain degree.
 
Stigma has gotten a lot better, which is why the demand for our services increased significantly--there's a JAMA article on this not too long ago. Which is one reason this field has changed in every way: money, prestige, competitiveness, etc. In the 70s/80s if you go to a psychiatrist and take MEDICATIONS you are SERIOUSLY craycray.

I say don't fix something that ain't broken.
 
Never understood why mental illnesses aren't referred to as syndromes. It seems more appropriate given the knowledge of their etiologies and also how they affect so many areas of functioning. I'm not sure I would consider it de-stigmatizing, but it would make more sense to me which might have the indirect effect of making it less stigmatizing. "Mental" seems (to me) to just refer to thought processes, which seems reductive. Thought processes are part of mental illness but not the whole thing.
 
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aaae2 said:
I thought maybe his view was that the stigma associated with psychiatry is related to the fact that it sounds too similar to psychology, not so much that mental health in general has a stigma associated with it, as he seemed to think he got a more positive reception when he referred to himself as a doctor specializing in mental health. Since he mentioned that psychologists are not medical doctors but doctorates, perhaps this is also where the whole "psychiatrists are not real doctors thing" comes from... Most of the general public still cannot distinguish between the two. The average person just sees psychiatrists as psychologists with special prescribing rights, if they can tell them apart at all, no? Both of my parents are psychiatrists so I get asked these things all the time and the simple explanation that "psychiatrists can prescribe medicine and psychologists cannot" just seems to reinforce misconceptions/seems reductive. So I thought that that was what he was getting at but now I'm not sure.
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Most humans are horrible with the exception to the rule. Most medical specialties start with the suffix- ology. Dermatology, cardiology and anesthesiology and more. So if you gave someone a test which one is not a medical specialty Cardiology, Dermatology, Endocrinology and Psychiatry . Most would say psychiatry because it is an exception to the rule and humans are bad at exceptions to the rule. Also most in the general public have no clue what the difference is between a psych nurse practitioner and a psychiatrist .
 
To me people who still get so butthurt about having to describe how they’re different from a psychologist are just showing something about their own sense of security and thought processes...and apparently have very little insight into how prominently they’re showing that every time they bring this topic up. It’s like the resident I know who insists that everyone everywhere call her doctor.
 
MBBSMOM said:
Most humans are horrible with the exception to the rule. Most medical specialties start with the suffix- ology. Dermatology, cardiology and anesthesiology and more. So if you gave someone a test which one is not a medical specialty Cardiology, Dermatology, Endocrinology and Psychiatry . Most would say psychiatry because it is an exception to the rule and humans are bad at exceptions to the rule. Also most in the general public have no clue what the difference is between a psych nurse practitioner and a psychiatrist .
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I mean most people don’t know what the difference is between a CRNA and a anesthesiologist either. Or a optometrist and ophthalmologist.
 
In college I had an abnormal psych professor who pointed out that the nomenclature changes every 20 years or so in psychiatry/psychology. People get the idea that because current terminology is so stigmatizing, changing the words will solve everything. But over time the new terminology becomes just as bad. And on we go...
 
At least we are an -iatry. Makes much more sense than -ologies. I am of the mind that you treat stigma more effectively by pushing through the stigmatized name rather than running away from it (unless there is something inherently wrong with the name; psyche is not inherently offensive).

I don't understand that guy's obsession with treating "diagnosable diseases." Lots of non-medical folk give plenty of fake diagnoses and we've been known to get a thing or two wrong in the past. The difference is that we try to base our approach to intervention on scientific experiments...

With that said, what I really hate is clinical departments calling themselves "science" departments (i.e. relabeling the neurology floor the neuroscience floor). Unless they are doing experiments on all the patients, this makes no sense. Yes, some phsyicians are scientists and most base their practice largely on scientific observations and tests hypotheses... but few are actually scientists.
 
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aaae2 said:
Yeah what is the best way to respond when people ask what the difference is in your opinion?I know some psychologists' kids and I often get "your parents are not real doctors they just ask people how they feel for a living","our parents do the same thing yours are just also allowed to give out medicine" from them and I just feel like the similarity in the terms propels these kinds of comments. didn't mean to come off bitter, sorry.
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This comment sounds like something a 15-16 year old would say.
 
I also think this whole "real doctor" thing is pretty dumb. Most phsyicians are NOT real doctors. They've just bastardized a word meaning teacher used to refer to those who taught at the university level.

University professors, most of whom are PhDs, along with people who teach med school, law school, ect. are the "real doctors."

You can say you do whatever you want to say, but the one word we've got legally protected (at least where I am) is physician (all though the PA apparently got tenure and we're promoted from assistants to associates, so it's only a matter of time before they before full physicians).
 
aaae2 said:
Yeah what is the best way to respond when people ask what the difference is in your opinion? I know some psychologists' kids and I often get "your parents are not real doctors they just ask people how they feel for a living","our parents do the same thing yours are just also allowed to give out medicine" from them. Of course psychology is equally valuable but I just feel like the similarity in the terms propels these kinds of comments. didn't mean to come off bitter, sorry.
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I mean why are you arguing with some psychologists kids whose parents are real doctors or not in the first place...

A PhD is a real “doctor”. They are not a medical doctor, which is what we are. They are a doctor of philosophy or psychology (if they’re a PsyD). So...you’re both real doctors.

It may be more valuable to analyze why this is so important to you and the background behind the thought/emotions that come up when they say these kinds of things that compel you to respond in some way.
 
aaae2 said:
Right but with optometrist/ophthalmologist the misconception elevates optometrist to the status of physician but has no baring on the perception of the ophthalmologist. With psychologist/psychiatrist, the misconception seems to paint psychiatry as something non-medical.
www.kevinmd.com

How psychiatrists became lesser physicians

We also need to look beyond our own specialty, and identify with other physicians as a whole.
www.kevinmd.com www.kevinmd.com
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You do realize that the public thinks most anesthesiologists are nurses because of CRNAs? In a poll done only 44% of the public knew anesthesiologists were physicians. About 42% said anesthesiologists were another medical profession. 13% didn’t know. Also don’t forget the CRNAs who are pushing for the nurse anesthesiologist title . Nursing Board Signs Off On ‘Anesthesiologist’ Title Also don't forget psych nps and NPs in general. You ask a pt who their psychiatrist is and they say Dr. X but it's a psych NP instead and the pt thought they were a psychiatrist. This happens all the time people think they saw a psychiatrist but its' a psych NP.
 
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aaae2 said:
Yeah I understand that they're both doctors but my friend circle is kids in a BS/MD program so in that context when we use the term doctor we mean people who finished med school. And so the scenario plays out more like I'll contribute something to the conversation about medicine, mentioning that I learned it from my parents, and from them more so than anyone else it's always "Well your parents aren't real doctors so what do you know about this? They don't practice REAL medicine, they just ask people about their feelings." But they don't say it to others in our circle whose parents are non-medical doctors. Like it's not that I exactly mind but it's clear that they mean it in a derogatory sense. But point taken, I understand I sound like a high schooler... I just thought I'd get asked this stuff less in uni/med school but looks like I'm getting asked it more and more...
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If this is the way they typically respond to you, it sounds like you may need to find a new circle of friends...

I never attended medical school, but I'm sure there are biases against psychiatrists amongst some students and, unfortunately, instructors. But I imagine there are biases against all specialties to an extent, once you get to certain levels and groups.

There are similar petty turfette tiffs in psychology grad departments--clinical psych students telling counseling students they couldn't get in to clinical programs, cognitive students telling developmental students they aren't doing real science, I/O students walking around with no one knowing what they actually do half the time, and everyone telling clinical students that they're conceited jerkwads. The sooner you accept and then distance yourself from this, the happier your training experience will be.
 
aaae2 said:
Yeah I understand that they're both doctors but my friend circle is kids in a BS/MD program so in that context when we use the term doctor we mean people who finished med school. And so the scenario plays out more like I'll contribute something to the conversation about medicine, mentioning that I learned it from my parents, and from them more so than anyone else it's always "Well your parents aren't real doctors so what do you know about this? They don't practice REAL medicine, they just ask people about their feelings." But they don't say it to others in our circle whose parents are non-medical doctors. Like it's not that I exactly mind but it's clear that they mean it in a derogatory sense. But point taken, I understand I sound like a high schooler... I just thought I'd get asked this stuff less in uni/med school but looks like I'm getting asked it more and more...
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Are you a premed? Most don't care about these things in the real world...
 
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