Doctors - and in particular psychiatrists who are specialized in the field of mental disorders - need to be able to diagnose and treat mental disorders. They need to be able to distinguish between just feeling sad and clinical depression. The purpose of diagnosis is to implement a treatment. Treatments for psychological disorders are mostly linked to theories about the causes of the psychological disorders, even though our current understanding of causes of psychological disorders is still imperfect.

Until the discovery of modern medicine, psychiatrists were working within the psychoanalytic tradition started by Sigmund Freud, suggesting that psychological disorders were rooted in the mind and could be treated through 'talk therapy' conducted by a psychoanalyst. The rise of a more biomedical approach to psychological disorders has been influenced by advances in neuroscience and brain imaging technologies. 

Baldessarini (2014) argues that the view that psychological disorders are caused by biological factors is based on an assumption that is not yet proven. Psychological disorders are very complex and treating them only with drugs is a limited approach. An interactionist approach argues that a combination of biological and psychological approaches to understanding a disorder and its treatments should be considered.

Contemporary abnormal psychology adopts a number of approaches to treatment depending on the disorder. There is now a general belief that a multifaceted approach to treatment is the most efficient. This is called the biopsychosocial approach to treatment and it may include drug treatment, individual therapy (e.g. cognitive therapy), or group therapy (e.g. family therapy) as well as help to handle risk factors in the environment such as a stressful relationship. The approach that is adopted can even have an effect on how the clinician interacts with the person who has come to seek help.  Psychiatrists who use a biological approach to mental illness tend to use the term “patient” for those who seek their help.  Those that use a more psychological approach to therapy have replaced the word “patient” with “client.”.

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What difference does it make whether a psychiatrist refers to a person seeking help as a patient or a client?  Would this affect the way that you would interact with your psychiatrist?

The key to this question is two different paradigms of treatment.  The word "patient" implies that the person is "ill" and needs treatment.  There is also a bias that implies that the person needs treatment and this requires an expert who will tell them what is wrong with them and what needs to be done for the individual to improve - that is, a directive therapy approach.

The term "client" was popularized by Carl Rogers as part of humanistic therapy. The implication here is that the therapist and the client are a team - that the therapist is working for the client. Rogers believed that therapy had to be non-directive - that is, the therapist is a sounding board, helping the client to find their own way, but not telling them what they need to do and not seeing them as ill and unable to help themselves.

Biomedical treatments for depression