Can a Licensed Psychologist diagnose a mental disorder or does a Psychiatrist have to do it?

Also can a Psychologist diagnose you after just meeting once? I had to take this series of personality tests and it was right after a major tragedy happened in my life so my scores for depression, anger, and anxiety were really high, in fact the test should have been considerd invalid and done over because of the scores being so high on some of the scales the test was invalid.

Answer:
They have certain disorders they can diagnose and treat, they just can give meds like a psychiatrist.
Neither knows very much in my opinion, and most are best suited for diagnosing and treating one another after the doors are locked at 5 pm.
there are certain things which limits to a licensed psychologist while a psychiatrist is the better position to assist you if things got worst.
psychologists are good for advice and diagnosing a mental disorder, but if it's certain medications u think u may require, only psychiatrists can write u a prescription.
there are different psychologists out there- behavioral, humanistic, biological, evolutionary and many more. so a different psychologist may give u different advice than another one.
A psychologist, psychiatrist, social worker, or other mental health professional with training in the use of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of Mental Disorders can give diagnostic impressions. Certainly those impressions can be skewed based on the recency of any major stressor. Not surprisingly, you showed elevated depression, anger, and anxiety scores, and these emotions may have been situationally triggered. This does not mean that the test was invalid, but could mean that your scores were reflective of your current emotional state associated with your tragedy. Most tests have validity scales which are taken into consideration before interpretations are rendered. That said, the interpretation is only as good as the interpreter, so sometimes it is well worth understanding how much experience any professional has in their field. Perhaps this speaks to Joe C's funny cynicism regarding the field of mental health. If your scores were high, take some time to consider what you do feel and, most importantly, what you need for yourself to feel joy, peace, and calm again in your life.
I think a Psychiatrist is more qualified to diagnose disprders since they work with people that have mental disorders. Psychologist are more into general therapy and counseling
A psychologist can diagnose a mental disorder the only thing that a psychiatrist can do that a psychologist can't do is to prescribe medication. In fact most of the time it's the psychologist who makes the diagnoses and the psychiatrist who seconds it and who makes the medication recommendation. Most people who are in therapy and who aren't seeing a clinical social worker see a psychologist. Psychologists and Psychiatrist both use the DSM what ever edition their up to now to help them make a diagnoses if it's not in the DSM medical insurance won't pay for treatment. The fact that you were dealing with some personal issues does not make the test invalid in fact for that time of your life it was very valid. You were upset and probably depressed and that's what the test showed. What you seem to want to know is if the test are still valid now. For that you might want another evaluation if things have calmed down and you feel better. Talk to the person that you went to before and ask for a retest. That would be the only way that you'd be sure for yourself.

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