A Psychiatrist's Prescription For His Profession

[BridgeTheGap]

Two years ago, psychiatrist Daniel Carlat wrote a piece in the New York Times Magazine called Dr. Drug Rep, in which he told his story of being paid to push the anti-depressant Effexor to his colleagues.

Carlat joins Fresh Air contributor Dave Davies today to talk about his new book, called Unhinged: The Trouble With Psychiatry. But the book isn't just concerned with the influence of drug companies in the profession.

Carlat believes in prescribing medication, but he says too many psychiatrists have all but abandoned talk therapy — leaving in-depth interaction with patients to others — while they pursue medical fixes for mood problems and mental disorders.

"Based on a survey of psychiatrists throughout the United States , it turns out only 11 percent of all psychiatrists now offer therapy to all of their patients," he explains. "So essentially, 1 out of 10 psychiatrists are really doing psychotherapy on a regular basis."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128107547

[qb]

1. That's been my experience, and it's all economics.

I only see my psychiatrist 10 or 15 minutes to review meds. All talk therapy comes from a licensed social worker.

[mopinko]

2. yup, that's the way it is.

bp daughter would see the pdoc for 10-15 minutes, and the tdoc for the hour. and even at that the guy barely paid attention to what he was doing. more than one had a philosophy of- if it doesn't work, take more, keep taking more until it starts to give you some bad effect, so we can make sure it isn't for you. yeah, short cut to the psych ward.