The relationship between psychiatry and psychology gives rise to many misunderstandings, since not everyone understands how these two sciences complement each other.

And yet, if we are to understand what mental health is and how it is promoted, it is necessary to have a realistic view of the link between psychiatry and clinical psychology; a view far removed from biases and old clichés and stereotypes.

Understanding the Role of the Psychiatrist in a Psychology Center

On this occasion we interviewed Dr. Ignacio Vera López , a psychiatrist associated with Centro TAP, a psychological care clinic in Madrid, to explain to us what the work of a psychiatrist consists of as an intervention agent who supports teams of psychologists and takes on cases that require medically based care.

Let’s start with the basics: what is the role of a psychiatrist working in a psychological and psychiatric care facility? What kind of patients does he or she see?

In some patients I carry out the initial evaluation with the aim of guiding a diagnosis and establishing a treatment plan in which both the psychopharmacological treatment and the psychotherapeutic interventions are integrated.

In other patients it is the psychologists of the centre itself or of other cabinets in the region who ask me to evaluate patients who are undergoing psychological treatment in order to determine the need for a psychopharmacological intervention with the aim of favouring the patient’s evolution.

It is often assumed that psychiatrists simply prescribe psychotropic drugs. What other ways can psychiatry intervene in people’s health?

The origin of this belief seems to lie in the medical training that we psychiatrists have received. However, clinical diagnosis and the psychopharmacological approach are only two of the tools with which psychiatrists approach patients.

Training in psychotherapy is compulsory in our professional career and the psychotherapeutic approach, and social interventions are an essential part of our care work.

How do clinical psychology and psychiatry complement each other?

It is an absolutely necessary complementarity. Mental disorders cannot be conceived in the same way as the rest of the organic diseases under a strictly medical paradigm, since they are the result of the interaction between biological factors, psychic functioning and the social environment in which the subject is immersed.

Psychological drugs can bring symptomatic relief, but it is necessary to carry out psychotherapeutic work that takes into account the individual’s subjectivity and ensure social contexts that dignify the person.

In many ways, the general view of the branch of medicine that deals with mental health is anchored in images from the 1960s and 1970s. What has changed most in psychiatry over the past few decades?

It is true that clinical psychiatry has been linked in the popular imagination to the confinement of lunatics and the forced treatment of “madmen”, but it should not be forgotten that lunatics’ asylums were set up to protect people with mental health problems from the masses of society who wanted to lynch them. In these institutions they were taken in, not treated, as they were not considered sick, but different and potentially dangerous and unpredictable.

However, psychiatrists themselves have been the main drivers of the psychiatric reform that has humanized the treatment and care of people with mental disorders by eliminating the old prevailing abuses and promoting a holistic and humanitarian vision of mental disorders. This is undoubtedly psychiatry’s greatest achievement in the last 40 years.

The next few years will probably see new discoveries and technological developments that will help many patients. What are the most promising scientific advances in the field of psychiatry?

Advances in psychopharmacology, the sophistication of neuroimaging techniques and the applications of genetics will undoubtedly continue to contribute to alleviating the discomfort of our patients.

However, the advances of technoscience should not distance us from listening, which is what can truly allow us to understand the psychic suffering of each person.

The subjectivity of the individual crosses any symptomatic expression so the integration between the advances of technoscience and the listening of each story seems to be the main challenge that psychiatry faces today.

Finally… could you explain a case of patient improvement that makes you especially proud?

It’s hard to choose a case. I am content to be able to understand the discomfort of each patient and contribute to lessening the psychic suffering behind each story.

Dr. Ignacio Vera attends the Tap Center, located in Avenida de Manoteras number 8, Madrid.