What’s the difference between a psychologist, psychiatrist, psychopharmacologist, and a psychoanalyst?
There can be convergence between these three roles as well as important distinctions. A psychologist goes to graduate school where, in addition to earning a Ph.D. or Psy.D. in a subspecialty of psychology, they get extensive clinical training in a specialization of their choice. There are different kinds of psychologists: clinical psychologists, neuropsychologists, developmental psychologists, and so on. Clinical psychologists also subspecialize, but many of them focus on psychotherapy. A psychiatrist goes to medical school, where after they earn their M.D.s, they do residency training in psychiatry including extensive clinical training. Psychopharmacologists are psychiatrists who specialize in treating patients who have psychological complaints with drugs. All psychiatrists are qualified to write prescriptions, but some or many of them choose to specialize in doing psychotherapy instead. Both psychologists and psychiatrists as well as social workers can do special training to become a
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