Transcript
When you come in with PTSD,
you may see a psychiatrist, you may see a psychologist.
I am a psychiatrist.
Psychiatrists are MDs, medical doctors.
Primarily, my role as a psychiatrist in the clinic is to
prescribe medications that can help relieve symptoms
of PTSD, depression, other anxiety symptoms.
Psychologists are also doctors, with PhDs, and their role,
primarily, is to provide psychotherapy for PTSD.
When you come in and see a psychiatrist, if you
and your provider decide to prescribe medication for PTSD,
you will probably only see your psychiatrist
on a monthly basis or every other month, depending on
how often you need to be checked on
to see if the medication needs to be adjusted.
When you see a psychologist to do therapy for PTSD,
you typically will see that person every week
for an hour or more, depending on the type of therapy
that you're doing, and generally, that therapy will last
about three months.
Often I draw the analogy to physical therapy.
When you have a physical injury, you may be referred
by your doctor to do physical therapy, and you would work
fairly regularly, on a weekly basis for example,
with a physical therapist to work on your strength
and range of motion and to recover from the injury.
Therapy for PTSD is similar in many ways to that in terms of
working closely with a psychologist to overcome
some of the difficulties that you may be experiencing.