Psychiatry deals with prevention, assessment, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of mental illness. A psychiatrist diagnoses and treats those with mental and emotional disorders such as schizophrenia, addictions, mood and anxiety disorders, substance-abuse disorders, and sexual and adjustment disorders. After assessment, the psychiatrist can diagnose, treat and manage an illness or problem by medication or various forms of psychotherapy. A psychiatrist is qualified to order diagnostic laboratory tests and to prescribe medications, evaluate and treat psychologic and interpersonal problems, and to intervene with families who are coping with stress, crises and other problems.

Physicians in this specialty treat patients suffering from numerous diseases and illnesses, but some of the most common are attention deficit hyperactive, learning disabilities, co-dependency, attention deficit disorder, clinical depression, eating disorders, anxiety disorders, phobias, mania, schizophrenia, claustrophobia, paranoia, agoraphobia, psychosis, social anxiety disorder, hallucination, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, and panic attacks.

Once properly diagnosed, practitioners can perform numerous procedures on patients including marital therapy, marital counseling, adolescent counseling, child counseling, stress management, hypnosis, family therapy, shock treatment, relaxation therapy, electroconvulsive therapy, and psychiatric therapy.

To diagnose patients with possible illnesses and diseases, specialists will often perform one of many tests including psychiatric evaluation, intelligence tests, personality tests, add/adhd tests, depression tests, stress tests, abuse tests, psychiatric exam, sexual health tests, and addictions tests.

Doctor density varies by specialty and location. The United States has 34,009 practicing psychiatrists. Broken out by state, psychiatry doctor density in Alabama is 316, in Alaska is 75, in Arizona is 560, in Arkansas is 204, in California is 4,374, in Colorado is 477, in Connecticut is 751, in Delaware is 112, in District of Columbia is 331, in Florida is 1,271, in Georgia is 784, in Hawaii is 204, in Idaho is 80, in Illinois is 1,278, in Indiana is 490, in Iowa is 283, in Kansas is 290, in Kentucky is 417, in Louisiana is 359, in Maine is 253, in Maryland is 988, in Massachusetts is 2,033, in Michigan is 1,002, in Minnesota is 521, in Mississippi is 188, in Missouri is 611, in Montana is 93, in Nebraska is 151, in Nevada is 152, in New Hampshire is 184, in New Jersey is 1,081, in New Mexico is 261, in New York is 4,189, in North Carolina is 922, in North Dakota is 79, in Ohio is 1,151, in Oklahoma is 284, in Oregon is 432, in Pennsylvania is 1,618, in Rhode Island is 226, in South Carolina is 456, in South Dakota is 68, in Tennessee is 472, in Texas is 1,492, in Utah is 191, in Vermont is 130, in Virginia is 813, in Washington is 736, in West Virginia is 186, in Wisconsin is 546, and in Wyoming is 48.