The therapy of mental diseases in modern medical practice involves professionals from different disciplines. Since many different factors may contribute to the causation of mental diseases, psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists and social workers, may all contribute to different aspects of assessment and therapy of mental diseases, depending often on local resources availability.

Basically, two main kind of treatments are used for the therapy of mental diseases: physical treatments and psychological treatments.

The most commonly used physical treatment is drug therapy More ; electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is also used in a significant proportion of hospital inpatients More ; psychosurgery is very rarely used nowadays.

The most commonly used psychological treatment is psychotherapy.

Psychotherapy is a term applied to a number of psychological methods in which the relationship and communication between the patient and the therapist are used as the main instrument for the therapeutic change in the patient. More

Always refer to your family doctor or to a hospital emergency department, or to a local social service office, if you have any doubt regarding a mental disease and its treatment, or if you need suggestions or support about mental health.