Neurology-Nervous patients

Among the kinds of specialists he may choose from are the following: A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in mental and emotional disturbances. Along with basic medical education, he has had special training, including years of internship and residency, in diagnosis and treatment of emotional disorders. Preferably, he should be certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, indicating that he has satisfied established requirements for training, experience, and competence. A psychoanalyst is a psychiatrist schooled in the procedures of psycho- analysis. He has had special postgraduate study, usually at a training institution associated with the American Psychoanalytic Association. While psychoanalysts are psychiatrists, not all psychiatrists are analysts.

 There are also lay analysts who are not physicians; most often they are clinical psychologists who have had analytic training at a psychoanalytic institution. A neurologist is a physician with special training in brain and nervous system problems. He is often of service when mental disorders stem from physical problems. A psychologist is not a physician. He may be a "doctor" as the result of earning a doctorate in philosophy after extensive postgraduate work in the field of human behavior. Some psychologists teach; some do re- search work. A clinical psychologist works in the field of abnormal behavior and deals with patients. One of his important functions may be to administer psychological tests that may be helpful in diagnosing mental problems. A psychiatric social worker generally serves as an important aide, pro- viding rehabilitative counseling, keeping a patient's family informed, and maintaining records. Often social workers with suitable backgrounds, including college education and postgraduate work leading to a master of social work degree, are trained to work with patients, providing psychotherapy, usually under the supervision of a psychiatrist. It is important to note here that often your family physician himself may be able to help you. Don't hesitate to talk about yourself-your real self and your real problems-to your doctor. More and more family physicians today are interested in emotional as well as physical problems.

Medical schools increasingly have been teaching psychiatric principles as a major part of medical training. Many general practitioners have taken special postgraduate training and are qualified to provide some of the forms of psychotherapy we will discuss shortly. Actually, psychotherapy is a broad term which covers everything from the simplest "spilling out" of troubles to a wise friend to the long, de- tailed process of psychoanalysis. And the fact is that virtually every doctor has always practiced some form of psychotherapy-quite often, in the past, without realizing it. In dealing with a patient who has an exaggerated fear that he is ill, the doctor's examination, explanation, reassurance, and firmness are forms of psychotherapy.

When he helps a tense, nervous patient to find a hobby-that, too, is psychotherapy

 Physicians, of course, are human. Not all are emotionally constituted to be able to help with all kinds of problems which their patients face, even if they have the time. Try to size up your doctor. It is important to find someone with whom you will be personally in sympathy. Give your doctor a chance, and if you discover that the two of you do not click, you have a perfect right to find someone else: The best psychiatrists know that it is not possible to establish a good relationship with every patient. Knowing how important such a relationship is for the success of treatment, they sometimes even suggest that a patient change to someone else if the existing relationship is not sufficiently good.