Comment: the role of psychiatry in medicine

Abstract

Psychiatry shares with the rest of medicine all basic goals, assumptions, and approaches as well as many techniques. Any apparent "differences in approach" between psychiatry and general medicine arise from a confusion between the essentials and the specialized techniques and procedures developed in psychiatry. The educational task of psychiatry--to integrate relevant knowledge and skills from the behavioral sciences with the biological sciences and to operationalize a comprehensive approach to patient care--can be accomplished by the general psychiatrist through consultation and collaborative care of patients.