Cours de Psychiatry

Psychiatry is the branch of medicine dealing with mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders. It entails diagnosing and treating these disorders to improve health in these areas, with methods including hospitalization, psychotherapy, medication, support groups, and other psychiatric interventions.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, nearly 1 in 25 adults in America live with a serious mental illness. Psychiatry is important for learners interested in treating mental health problems through a holistic understanding of the physical, mental, social, and behavioral aspects.‎

Learners interested in becoming Psychiatrists will need to go through medical school. However, anyone interested in working with Psychiatrists or under the umbrella of mental health can enjoy various options for careers, including Clinical or Counseling Psychologist, Marriage and Family Therapist, Clinical Social Worker, Psychiatric Registered Nurse, Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, and many others.‎

Courses on Psychiatry offered through Coursera provide learners with knowledge on different aspects of good mental health; the causes, treatments, and ways to seek help for mental disorders; the skills that apply to mental health clinical settings; and more.

Lessons on Psychiatry are taught by professors of Psychiatry from major universities, and are administered via video lectures, readings, quizzes, practical application scenarios, and more.‎

The skills and experience you need to have before studying psychiatry include the need to feel empathy and compassion towards others and a basic understanding of how disorders can be treated using medicine management. One of the most important skills needed to study psychiatry is the ability to listen to and observe others so you can gain trust and establish rapport with patients and clients in need of psychiatric services. If you have the experience of working in trauma or emergencies, you may already have the foundation you need to learn more about the psychiatric support of patients in need of crisis intervention.‎

The kind of person best suited to learn psychiatry is one who is perceptive to other people’s needs, emotions, and feelings. However, people who may prefer to learn psychiatry may be more interested in treating mental illness or challenging behaviors with a more clinical, medicinal approach than would a psychologist or therapist. So, a person who is best suited to learn psychiatry may have a deeper interest in focusing on medicinal and pharmacologic treatments for patients. Another type of person who may find the study of psychiatry relevant is someone who wants to learn how global social factors, attitudes, and developments promote mental health or influence the onset of mental illness.‎

Learning psychiatry may be right for you if you want to combine an understanding of helping others and medicine management. There are many avenues of medicine management in psychiatry. If you are interested in learning about new medical treatments, the biological aspects of a patient’s behavior, and how to manage a patient’s progress with various medications, learning psychiatry may be right for you. Studying psychiatry is also beneficial for you if you would like to learn about various psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and major depression, and how to control them through medication management. If you are interested in learning more about the emerging discipline of medical cannabis for pain control, learning psychiatry may be important for you. Also, if you plan to work in the addiction field, learning psychiatry is important to learn because it will give you the foundation of understanding addiction identification and evidence-based treatments.‎