Psychiatry and Psychology
A Comparison In Training
if SB 2050 is Enacted

Psychiatrists:
Specialist Physicians

Psychologists:
Behavioral Counselors

Post Doctoral Studies:

After the M.D. or D.O. is awarded, psychiatrists have a four year (or more) residency program of 10,000 to 12,000 hours, including 2,000 to 3,000 hours of classroom instruction, to learn how to:

• diagnose, order and interpret medical and psychological tests and consultations;
• intervene to prevent illness and/or arrest it;
• determine what treatments are appropriate, what side effects may result and how to deal with those side effects.

The program must include taking primary responsibility for patients in inpatient and outpatient psychiatric care, including neurology patients, medical and surgical patients with psychiatric disorders, and in community mental health. The resident must take major responsibility for diagnosis and treatment of persons with acute and chronic illnesses, including the major psychotic and nonpsychotic categories of illness. They must also serve as the 24-hour on-call psychiatrist for an entire hospital, taking front-line responsibility in the emergency room.

They are specifically trained in prescribing medications and in the chemistry and biology of how those medications operate and interact with other medications and disease conditions of the patient. Psychiatrists are trained to handle health problems both independently and in connection with a brain disease. The average psychiatrist sees almost 10 times as many patients suffering from schizophrenia, major depression and mania as other specialists. The greater part of psychiatric training takes place in hospitals.

Post Doctoral Studies:

For clinical psychologists only, two years (3,000 hours) of supervised practice are required, only one of which (1,500 hours) must take place after the Ph.D. has been awarded. None has to be in a hospital setting. Psychologists' patients are less varied and less serious than psychiatrists' patients. At no point during his or her training does a clinical psychologist observe the treatment of patients with medical illnesses other than mental disorders. They are not trained in taking medical histories, conducting physical examinations, or ordering and evaluating laboratory tests.

SB 2050:

Allows psychologists licensed prior to enactment of SB 2050 to apply for certification as having training equivalent to that added by SB 2050.

SB 2050 changes:

• Changes 72 semester credits to 4000 classroom hours. 
• Adds instruction in neuroscience; biochemistry; pharmacology; psychopharmacology; chemical dependency and pain management; pathophysiology; physical assessment and laboratory; and pharmaco-therapeutics, including professional, ethical, and legal issues, psychotherapy and pharmacology interactions, interactive computer technology; assessment and diagnosis; psychotherapy; and neurology. 
• Note that virtually none of these courses go below the neck.
• Completion of 800 supervised hours in prescribing and managing medications, not necessarily supervised by a physician, which must be in an organized health or mental health setting..

Doctoral Studies:

Psychiatrists and other physicians have statutorily-required four years (4,000 hours minimum) of medical school, with at least 80% attendance. Required courses include alcohol and substance abuse, anesthesia, behavioral science, biochemistry, endocrinology, genetics, geriatrics, histology, microbiology, anatomy, neurology, human physiology, pharmacology, psychiatry, gynecology and obstetrics, internal medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry, surgery and urology (1) - the entire human body.

The 4000 hours must include 72 weeks of supervised clinical training, 54 of which is in the medical school's hospital, which must be accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals, and meet other prescribed standards. The director of clinical instruction and all department heads in the core courses must be full-time instructors, and the clinical program of each medical school must be specifically approved by the state.(1)

To be licensed as a physician, the medical school graduate must also complete at least a one-year internship after graduation.(1)

Psychiatrist learns how to take medical, psychological, social and family histories; conduct medical examinations; and to order and interpret laboratory tests.

Doctoral Studies:

Psychologists' graduate studies are four years (48 semester units with no legal hourly minimum) of study focusing on human behavior, not on medical science and human illness. Course work includes alcohol and substance dependency, social and cognitive affective bases of behavior, psychometrics and research methodology, professional ethics, spousal and partner abuse detection, and one course in the biological basis of behavior. Their training includes writing a dissertation not necessarily related to patient care or treatment for any mental illness or addictive disorder. Their philosophical orientation is as social scientists. A psychologist can receive a Ph.D. without being required to take more than one course in the biological basis of behavior.(2)

Undergraduate Studies:

Psychiatrists have four years of specific pre-medical undergraduate studies, with courses in basic sciences such as biology, organic and inorganic chemistry, and physics.

Undergraduate Studies:

Psychologists study liberal arts as undergraduates, majoring in psychology.