Private Psychiatric Practice Research Articles

Private Practice of Psychiatry

BY private practice of psychiatry we refer to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental illness by properly qualified and licensed physicians acting on their own authority and responsibility rather than as paid employees of an institution or organization. Mental illness includes maladjustment of a crippling nature. The expansion of private psychiatric practice is dealt with by Dr. Jules V. Coleman in the present volume, and need not be repeated here. Since the First World War, more physicians have entered the private practice of psychiatry than have entered the public mental hospital systems. It is estimated that approximately 4,000 psychiatrists in their capacity as private practitioners each see an average of about 200 patients a year. This totals 800,000 patients, about the number that is cared for in public mental hospitals and public clinics.

A survey of conditions of private psychiatric practice throughout the United States and Canada.

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article ArticleNo AccessA SURVEY OF CONDITIONS OF PRIVATE PSYCHIATRIC PRACTICE THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES AND CANADAWENDELL MUNCIE, and EDWARD G. BILLINGSWENDELL MUNCIESearch for more papers by this author, and EDWARD G. BILLINGSSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:1 Apr 2006https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.108.3.171AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail "A SURVEY OF CONDITIONS OF PRIVATE PSYCHIATRIC PRACTICE THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA." American Journal of Psychiatry, 108(3), pp. 171–172 Access content To read the fulltext, please use one of the options below to sign in or purchase access. Personal login Institutional Login Sign in via OpenAthens Purchase Save for later Item saved, go to cart PPV Articles - American Journal of Psychiatry $35.00 Add to cart PPV Articles - American Journal of Psychiatry Checkout Please login/register if you wish to pair your device and check access availability. Not a subscriber? Subscribe Now / Learn More PsychiatryOnline subscription options offer access to the DSM-5 library, books, journals, CME, and patient resources. This all-in-one virtual library provides psychiatrists and mental health professionals with key resources for diagnosis, treatment, research, and professional development. Need more help? PsychiatryOnline Customer Service may be reached by emailing [email protected] or by calling 800-368-5777 (in the U.S.) or 703-907-7322 (outside the U.S.). FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited ByA History of Private Psychiatric Hospitals in the USA: From Start to Almost FinishedPsychiatric Quarterly, Vol. 77, No. 1The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 20, No. 1PATTERNS OF PSYCHIATRIC PRACTICEJOHN MACIVER, and FREDRICK C. REDLICH1 April 2006 | American Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 115, No. 8 Volume 108Issue 3 September 1951Pages 171-172 Metrics PDF download History Published online 1 April 2006 Published in print 1 September 1951

Research in private practice.

1. On the basis of material presented, it would appear that the psychiatrist in private practice may increase his therapeutic success and add materially to the general fund of medical knowledge if he takes advantage of his assets and trains himself, as an integral part of his therapeutic procedure, to make and record the kind of careful observation required of the research scientist. 2. In so doing, he will find himself more and more in the rôle of the doctor of the family or the social group and an active participant in such public health programs as are focussed on preventive medicine. The cure of one person may mean the elimination of a focus of infection, and the prevention of illness in one or many persons more or less intimately associated with this patient. 3. The busy psychiatrist may well select from among the many who consult him those who are parents of young children, or in positions of authority that give them control over the destiny of groups. But every therapist who studies the patient in his family and cultural setting, and looks at him as a part of a series of patients with similar complaints, will make his contribution to research.

THE PRACTICE OF PSYCHIATRY IN A RURAL COMMUNITY

The private practice of psychiatry has been primarily centered about urban areas. For this reason, it was felt worth while to report the experience of practicing psychiatry in a rural community. This paper deals with the writer’s first year in practice, a period ending in March, 1948. The writer has been practicing in the village of Newark, located in Wayne County in upstate New York. The population of Newark is approximately 8,ooo and that of Wayne County is about 50,000. He is the only psychiatrist in private practice in Wayne County and, in fact, the only such practitioner in a rather wide belt between Syracuse and Rochester. Newark is located about 32 miles east of Rochester and 55 miles west of Syracuse. Because of the unusualness of practicing psychiatry rurally, it may be of interest to note the reason for settling in a small community. For 10 years prior to military service, the writer was employed as a resident physician at the Newark State School and, as a result of associations formed, desired to continue residence in Newark after military service. Furthermore, being fairly well known in the area and knowing almost all the physicians in the county, it was felt that the location had good possibilities for successful practice. The area served is not “backwoods” in any way. Most of the people are in moderate financial circumstances, and the general intellec ua! level is good. The population is chiefly of Anglo-Saxon, ,Dutch, or Italian extraction. The physicians are progressive, and I can state from personal contact that as a group they are extremely conscientious and faithful to their patients. Where special attention is indicated, it is not only recommended but strongly urged, so that optimal medical care can be rendered. I have found that there are a number of disadvantages in practicing psychiatry rur-

New Possibilities in Private Psychiatric Practice

New Possibilities in Private Psychiatric Practice

NEW POSSIBILITIES IN PRIVATE PSYCHIATRIC PRACTICE

The private practice of psychiatry is, relatively, a new field in medical service. Previous to about 1840 in this country, as elsewhere, most of the mentally sick got little more than custodial care, usually under unbelievably wretched conditions, in county poor houses or state asylums. This system was developed mainly to protect the community from the annoyances and dangers associated with the insane at large. The American Psychiatric Association was founded in i8 by the superintendents of mental hospitals, mostly state institutions. Several privately endowed hospitals, which are still today among the very best, were represented at this organizational meetingthe McLean, by Dr. Luther V. Bell, the Westchester Division of the New York Hospital, by Dr. Pliny Earle, the Pennsylvania Hospital by Dr. Thomas Kirkbride, and also the Pepperell Private Lunatic Asylum. By the late nineteenth century private sanitaria for the care of the insane, alcoholics, and drug addicts, some of them denominational, had arisen in the vicinity of large cities. When the rest cure of Dr. S. Weir Mitchell was introduced for neurasthenia, this type of home or sanitarium increased greatly in number. The group of physicians, brain specialists, as they were then called, in contradistinction to the nerve specialists, practicing privately in a city as large as New York at the beginning of the present century probably did not exceed a dozen. Then the advent of Freud and the psychoanalytic approach to a great variety of mental disturbances changed the nature and scope of private psychiatric practice and developed an entirely new type of psychiatrist. The demand for these specialists increased steadily for two reasons: First, many patients formerly sent to sanitaria were now being treated while living in their own homes and_continuing with their occupations. This

COMPARISON OF METRAZOL CONVULSIVE THERAPY WITH ELECTRIC SHOCK IN TREATMENT OF SCHIZOPHRENIA

In 1940 I reported 1 results obtained in the treatment of 100 schizophrenic patients with metrazol convulsive therapy. A similar study has been conducted during the past one and one-half years in the treatment of 100 schizophrenic patients with electric shock. The present group was composed approximately of the same type of psychiatric material as that employed in the first study. It has been emphasized by several writers that the difference in diagnostic criteria used by various clinicians in arriving at the diagnosis of schizophrenia is responsible for contradictory reports as to the results obtained with shock therapy in many hospitals. It is even debatable at present whether the term schizophrenia is actually limited to one mental disorder or may include a variety of similar psychiatric conditions. Besides, patients seen by psychiatrists in private practice and outpatient mental hygiene clinics are often of different type than those committed to public