Psychiatrists of many years ago also did therapy. For at least the last 20 years, 9 out of 10 psychiatrists do medication evals and management only. An Eval will last 30-60 minutes and follow ups generally last 15-30 minutes if your lucky. Most follow ups are 5-10 minutes. If you are wanting to talk about your issues, then you need to see a therapist. A psychiatrists job is to ask if your depression, hallucinations, anxiety, OCD, or whatever you are taking medicine for is better or worse and either adjust or leave the medication the same based on your description. The issues causing some of the above disturbances should be discussed with your therapist not a psychiatrist beyond the 1st visit. As a therapist of 25 years, I am still amazed that people think that psychiatrists do therapy and have to provide this education to my patients up front. Not all patients need to be on medicine thus not needing a psychiatrist. As well, not all patients seeing a psychiatrist need to see a therapist. Some need both.
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