The trouble with psychiatry: One shrink’s view

Borrowing the words of late Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Leon Eisenberg, psychiatry went from being "brainless" to being "mindless," Carlat says. Today, psychiatrists spend 20 minutes with a patient every few months, in essence adjusting medications, compared to an hour or more each week trying to understand what was wrong.

Some argue that reflects a more mature science, one that pays off faster and more efficiently. But that's not necessarily true, says Carlat. He cites an example from his clinic: He had been prescribing Ambien, a long-acting sleeping pill, to one of his patients for a while. At the same time, however, the patient was complaining to his therapist that he felt overly sedated and couldn't get up in the morning.

"One of his psychological issues was that he had such low self-esteem that he felt that he wasn't worth enough as a person to come to me -- the more intimidating doctor figure -- to ask me to do something about it."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37338067/ns/health-mental_health/