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 34,499 practicing psychiatrists. Broken out by state, psychiatry doctor density in Alabama is 330, in Alaska is 65, in Arizona is 529, in Arkansas is 219, in California is 4,662, in Colorado is 558, in Connecticut is 815, in Delaware is 110, in District of Columbia is 312, in Florida is 1,412, in Georgia is 745, in Hawaii is 172, in Idaho is 89, in Illinois is 1,401, in Indiana is 534, in Iowa is 336, in Kansas is 276, in Kentucky is 383, in Louisiana is 389, in Maine is 262, in Maryland is 1,003, in Massachusetts is 1,725, in Michigan is 876, in Minnesota is 691, in Mississippi is 166, in Missouri is 594, in Montana is 94, in Nebraska is 213, in Nevada is 130, in New Hampshire is 236, in New Jersey is 1,079, in New Mexico is 272, in New York is 3,840, in North Carolina is 887, in North Dakota is 98, in Ohio is 1,085, in Oklahoma is 281, in Oregon is 437, in Pennsylvania is 1,662, in Rhode Island is 210, in South Carolina is 379, in South Dakota is 63, in Tennessee is 535, in Texas is 1,576, in Utah is 175, in Vermont is 160, in Virginia is 811, in Washington is 696, in West Virginia is 200, in Wisconsin is 685, and in Wyoming is 35.