Psychiatric

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˌsaɪ.kiˈæt.ɹɪk/

Definitions

1. Relating to the medical specialty concerned with diagnosing and treating mental illness and emotional disorders
2. Concerning the branch of medicine that focuses on the assessment and management of mental health conditions and psychological disturbances
3. Pertaining to the field that deals with understanding, diagnosing, and treating mental illnesses and emotional issues

Etymology: Psychiatric grew out of a word that was itself assembled from Greek parts. The Greek "psykhē" meant "soul" or "breath of life," and "iatreia" meant "healing," so the older sense of the root was medical care of the soul. Psychiatry, the branch of medicine dealing with mental illness, is built from these elements, and "psychiatric" is the adjective formed from that noun by adding the suffix "-ic," meaning "relating to." The word therefore describes anything connected with that medical specialty, from a clinic or a hospital ward to a diagnosis or a course of treatment. Its meaning is narrower than "psychological," which covers the whole of the mind, because "psychiatric" points specifically to the medical side: assessment, diagnosis and treatment of conditions that affect mental health.

Synonyms: mental, psychological

Antonyms: physical