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Definition: psychiatry from Philip's Encyclopedia

Analysis, diagnosis and treatment of mental illness and behavioural disorders. It includes research into the cause and prevention of mental disorders, and the administering of treatment, usually by physical means, such as drugs and electroconvulsive therapy. Some psychiatrists also use psychotherapeutic techniques.

psychiatry

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
(sӘkī'Әtrē, sī–), branch of medicine that concerns the diagnosis and treatment of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders, including major depression , schizophrenia , and anxiety . Although the Greeks recognized the significance of emotions in mental disorders, medieval thought emphasized demonic influence. From the Middle Ages until the time of the French physician Philippe Pinel (1745–1826), who instituted humanitarian reforms in the care of the mentally ill, there was no organized attempt to study or treat mental abnormalities or to provide decent institutional conditions for the mentally ill. Such 19th-century reformers as Dorothea Dix fought for improved conditions in asylums. The early 20th cent. saw the organization of the mental hygiene movement, dedicated to the prevention of mental disease through guidance clinics and education. Scientists of the period sought underlying causes of mental and nervous disorders. The German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin was the first to…
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Full text Article Psychiatry

From The Oxford Encyclopedia of the History of American Science, Medicine, and Technology
Although physicians in the Colonial Era (such as Benjamin Rush) prescribed remedies for mental ailments, American psychiatry as a profession became organized within the wave of institution building in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1844, 13 heads of asylums created the American Association of…
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Full text Article psychiatry

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
(sӘkī'Әtrē, sī–), branch of medicine that concerns the diagnosis and treatment of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders, including major depression , schizophrenia , and anxiety . Although the Greeks recognized the significance of emotions in mental disorders, medieval thought emphasized…
| 351 words
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Psychiatry is the branch of medicine concerned with the treatment of people suffering from psychiatric disorders. Psychiatrists therefore receive an initial training in general medicine before undergoing further specific training in psychiatry. Psychiatrists embrace a wide range of opinions about…
| 164 words
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Full text Article psychiatry

From Collins Dictionary of Sociology
the treatment of the mentally ill by medically trained practitioners. Psychiatry is a branch of general medicine, using drug treatment as a clinical resource, but also other physical methods such as surgery and ECT (electroconvulsive therapy). Thus, on the orthodox medical model, the patient is seen…
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Full text Article FORENSIC PSYCHIATRY

From Dictionary of Forensic Psychology
Forensic psychiatry is a medical sub-specialty and a branch of psychiatry. It is a growing sub-specialty in many western countries. As the core issues of forensic psychiatry are concerned with legal matters, the practice and definition of forensic psychiatry will vary from country to country. A…
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Full text Article FORENSIC PSYCHIATRY

From The Edinburgh International Encyclopaedia of Psychoanalysis
involves itself with those people who suffer from mental disorder who are also offenders, either against the law or against the behavioural norms of society. The Latin word ‘forensics’ referred to the forum or public place in ancient Rome where justice was administered: Thus, literally, forensic…
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Full text Article Child Psychiatry

From Encyclopedia of Special Education: A Reference for the Education of Children, Adolescents, and Adults with Disabilities and Other Exceptional Individuals
Child psychiatry is a subdiscipline of psychiatry, a branch of medicine focusing on human emotional development and pathology. As a subspeciality, child psychiatry is approximately 75 years old, with Freud’s treatment of a young boy in 1909 marking its genesis ( Jones ,). The practitioner of child…
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Full text Article Geriatric Psychiatry

From The Encyclopedia of Aging
Geriatric psychiatry is a professional and academic field that addresses mental disorders that occur in late life. It focuses both on persons who had experienced the onset of a mental disorder early in life and who are now old (e.g., older patients with schizophrenia or mood disorders) and those…
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Full text Article anti-psychiatry

From The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology
An intellectual movement of the late 1950s and the 1960s which was critical of the theories and therapeutic treatments of conventional psychiatry. It made various criticisms. The involuntary incarceration of persons regarded as insane is an infringement of basic human rights. Psychiatry is a form of…
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Full text Article psychiatry

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Branch of medicine concerned with mental disorders. Until the 18th century, mental health problems were considered forms of demonic possession; gradually they came to be seen as illnesses requiring treatment. In the 19th century, research into and classification and treatment of mental illnesses…
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