Research Proposal

Running Head: PSYCHIATRY 1

Psychiatry

Victor Chiumia

PSY 635 Psychopharmacology

Roxanne Beharie

Ashford University

June 22, 2018

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Psychiatry 2

Psychiatry is the medical field which focuses on diagnosing, preventing and treating

mental disorders. It comprises a number of maladaptation’s associated with perception,

cognition, behavior and mood. A person's psychiatric assessment starts withe case history and

examination of the mental status followed by psychological and physical tests (Bajorek &

Stockman, 2018). The patients may be occasionally subjected to neurophysiological and

neuroimaging examinations. The diagnosis of mental disorders is done as per clinical concepts

outlined in manual for example International Classification of Diseases (ICD) which the World

Health Organization (WHO) uses as well as the commonly used Diagnostic and Statistical

Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) which is an American Psychiatric Association (APA)

publication. The most common mode of psychiatric treatment is a combination of psychotherapy

and psychiatric medication treatment although there are other modalities for example supported

employment, community reinforcement and assertive community treatment. Psychiatric

treatment may either be outpatient or inpatient depending on how severe the disorder is. Inpatient

cases are treated at psychiatric hospitals. Psychiatry has a number of disciplines such as

psychology, nursing, mental health counselors, social workers, radiologists’ epidemiologists and

public health workers.

There are many reasons why a person would seek psychiatric help. These include;

suicidal thoughts, hearing "voices" scaring hallucinations or panic attacks as well as long-term

problems for example anxiety, hopelessness or sadness. Psychiatrists are physicians so they may

perform or order a full range of psychological and medical laboratory tests which when done

together with conversations with patients help paint a patients mental and physical picture. The

clinical training and education of psychiatrists endow then the knowledge to comprehend the

complex connection between other medical illnesses and emotions as well as their links with

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family history and genetics in the evaluation of psychological and medical data in order to come

up with a diagnosis and come up with treatment plans. To be able to come up with these

treatment plans the psychiatrists need to employ psychology so as to understand what their

patients are going through and be able to sufficiently treat them we can therefore conclude that

psychology is the epitome of psychiatry.

A variety of treatments are used by psychiatrists. They include a number of medications,

psychotherapy and psychosocial interventions. The method of treatment depends on the patient’s

needs. The medications used by psychiatrists include antidepressants, antipsychotic medications,

stimulants, hypnotics, sedatives and mood stabilizers. These medicines are prescribed together

with psychotherapy. They might also use Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) where electrical

currents are applied to the brain mostly used in cases of severe depression.

Research is the desire for knowledge through diligent investigation, search or

experimentation that is focused at interpreting knowledge. There are several research methods

that are applied in psychiatry. They include; survey where individual units are sampled form a

population through questionnaires etc. There are two types of survey samples; non-probability

samples and probability samples. Most common ways of conducting surveys are through online

surveys, telephone, mail, personal in-home surveys and Personal Street or mall intercept survey.

Another research method is case study. This is an in-depth, up-close and detailed study of a

subject (case) (Freeman & Tyrer, 2006). They appear more often through popular works. Another

research methodology is correlational study. It determines if or not there is a correlation between

two variables. It means the examination whether a variable increase or decrease leads to the other

variables increase or decrease. Another research method is analytic study. It is a statistical study

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where action is conducted on a process that is credited for the frame under scrutiny with a

purpose of improving future practice.

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Reference

Bajorek, T., & Stockmann, T. (2018). Psychiatry.

Freeman, C., & Tyrer, P. J. (2006). Research methods in psychiatry. London: Gaskell, Royal

College of Psychiatrists.

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