What’s in a Name? A Lot!

When I started out in psychiatric practice nearly 40 years ago, my title was simply “psychiatrist.” Somehow or other we allowed various nonphysicians to tell us who we were and what type of medicine we were practicing. I was appalled recently to notice the opening of a new psychiatric center close to my home that is called the Center for Behavioral Health.

I recognize that a person’s behavior is one important aspect of psychiatry, but there are certainly many other psychiatric aspects that do not fall under the rubric of behavior. Psychiatry casts a very wide net that includes not only an individual’s behavior but his or her thoughts, emotions, intellectual abilities, talents, traumas, hopes, aspirations, social situation, and much more. Medical issues that impact directly or indirectly on the psyche do not necessarily manifest behaviorally.

I think all this nomenclature nonsense came about so that insurance companies would not have to reimburse services that were sorely needed. If a person’s behavior was relatively normal, why reimburse? A person’s behavior could look relatively normal to an insurance executive, yet that person could be a high-functioning person with paranoid schizophrenia, could have suicidal or even homicidal ideation, be under the control of strong delusions or drugs or alcohol, suffer from innumerable anxieties or phobias, and have numerous other clinical issues.

Psychiatry is an established clinical specialty in medicine. We have an American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology that certifies us. It is not the American Board of Behavioral Health and Neurology for a good reason. Ever hear of the American Psychiatric Association or Psychiatric News? These are not the American Behavioral Health Association and Behavioral Health News!

So please, let us eliminate all those “behavioral health” names and go back to our proper specialty name as in Center or Department of Psychiatry. And please call me a psychiatrist, not a behavioral health specialist! ■

GEORGE MILOWE, M.D.

Salem, Mass.