As Freud Rolls over in Grave, Psychiatrists Replace Listening with Drugs

[The Straight Story]

As Freud Rolls over in Grave, Psychiatrists Replace Listening with Drugs

Gone are the days when psychiatrists led the way in talk therapy and helped patients uncover the problems troubling their lives. Because the money isn’t in it, more and more of the 48,000 doctors who practice psychiatry do little of that these days and instead function more as drug therapists, meeting patients only briefly so they can get their prescriptions for anti-depressants, anti-anxiety and other medications.

Six years ago a government study found that only 11% of psychiatrists provided talk therapy to all patients, and that share is believed to have shrunk even more since then.

Psychiatrists have pulled out of talk therapy because insurance companies pay more for them to simply dispense prescriptions. “A psychiatrist can earn $150 for three 15-minute medication visits compared with $90 for a 45-minute talk therapy session,” wrote Gardiner Harris in The New York Times.

Of those psychiatrists who still offer talk therapy, many only cater to the wealthy. Some charge “$600 or more per hour to treat investment bankers, and top child psychiatrists charge $2,000 and more for initial evaluations.”



http://www.allgov.com/Controversies/ViewNews/As_Freud_Rolls_over_in_Grave_Psychiatrists_Replace_Listening_with_Drugs_110308

[Happyhippychick]

1. I saw this article this weekend. For those of us in mental health, this is not at all

new, psychiatrists in my area generally have 15 minute appointments where they gather info to prescribe meds. You'll pay $300 for that 15 minutes.

[PassingFair]

3. They'll make themselves unnecessary....

Why not just go to a psychologist and then get
their recommendations for drugs prescribed by
your GP? That way you get the talk AND the meds.

That's what I did when my daughter wanted counseling.

Why pay for a psychiatrist?

[Happyhippychick]

6. Many take the route that you did, they trust their own GP and don't want to

pay thousands (sometimes out of pocket) to see a psychiatrist. I recommend a psychiatrist if I think there is more than one diagnosis and meds will be combined, psychiatrists specialize in that. But in the end everyone has to go see the person they feel most comfortable with, the one who will be most accessible to them if they need to be seen or have a question. Often that is a person's GP.

[LaurenG]

2. This is true

If you want psychotherapy see a therapist who may suggest you use medications along with the therapy anyway. Psychiatrists are mainly there to prescribe and manage meds now. 50 minute sessions are not cost effective and would put most psychiatrists out of business unless most of their clients/patients are self pay.

I want drugs now, I missed out on all the fun in my younger years. I don't want antidepressants though. :P

[FLPanhandle]

4. I'd be curious if there are any studies on the effectiveness of each approach.

Has one proven to be more beneficial to patients?

Freudian talk therapy has been criticized for lack of results, however, brain chemistry drugs are still relatively new. Neither seems that great. Maybe there have been some stride in drugs lately.

[cali]

5. This has been the case for a couple of decades now.

[WatsonT]

7. I kind of thought that was why most people went to psychiatrists

over psychologists.

So it could be merely a function of self-selection on the part of the patients: those expecting drugs went to psychiatrists who obliged them, those seeking talk-therapy went to psychologists who likewise obliged them.

[JohnnyLib2]

8. I'm glad to see this publicized. Their role has changed over time.

Many "first-timers" seeking mental health help don't realize that.

[Johonny]

9. given some of Freud's theorys needed lamarkian evolution to be right

I'm willing to say he was wrong a lot.

[happyslug]

10. So did Freud...

Freud did a lot of landmark findings and revolutionized Psychology, but even he admitted he had been wrong (And Jung, a person who dealt extensively with Freud, openly opposed many of Freud's "findings").

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Jung

Jung and Freud were involved in the then young science of Psychology. They diverged on several areas, with Jung coming out the better of the two (But then Jung was 30 when Freud was 50, thus Jung in many ways build on the foundation laid by Freud). Like a lot of new ventures, wrong turns are common, thus both Freud and Jung made errors, but we have to accept that NOT get hung up on those errors.

[woo me with science]

11. There's a lot of worthless and even harmful talk therapy out there, too. However,

the overall point, that doctors (and not just the mental health professionals) are becoming pill dispensers with no time to listen to their patients, cannot be stressed enough.