Adult psychiatry

Mental health disorders are a growing problem that require expert diagnosis and treatment. If you need adult psychiatry services, Justina Okonkwo, DNP, FNP-C, PMHNP-BC, of Advanced Psychiatric Associates can help.

At the practice in Charlotte, North Carolina, Justina and her team provides in-person and virtual holistic health care, encompassing your mind, emotions, mood, and body. To discuss your mental health concerns, call Advanced Psychiatric Associates or book an appointment online today.

What is adult psychiatry?

Adult psychiatry is a medical speciality that focuses on diagnosing and treating mental health disorders. These conditions are often particularly challenging because there are few laboratory tests available. Therefore, your provider has to use their knowledge and experience to make a judgment on the cause of your symptoms. Mental health disorders also affect people in different ways, and often patients have more than one condition at the same time. For that reason, adult psychiatry requires considerable expertise, which you can benefit from at Advanced Psychiatric Associates

What conditions does adult psychiatry treat?

Adult psychiatry can address any mental health condition, but some disorders are more widespread than most. These include:

Bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder causes you to switch between periods of deep depression and periods of feeling over-energized.

Depression

Depression is the most common problem in adult psychiatry, causing you to feel hopeless, despairing, worthless, and in some cases, suicidal.

Anxiety disorder

Anxiety disorders provoke feelings of intense fear, stress, and dread, which may focus on a specific experience (for example, social anxiety disorder) or include almost every aspect of your life (generalized anxiety disorder).

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

PTSD develops following an experience that’s profoundly shocking and affecting. It often affects people in war zones, but could also occur as a result of being present at a plane crash, terrorist attack, or other traumatic event. Long-term abuse can also trigger PTSD.

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a severe form of mental illness that’s still not well understood by many people. It causes a distortion of reality, delusions, and hallucinations.

Substance abuse and addiction

Substance abuse is a leading trigger for mental health problems and makes existing psychiatric disorders worse.

What treatments are used in adult psychiatry?

One of the difficulties of adult psychiatry is that there’s no single treatment. Instead, the Advanced Psychiatric Associates team uses a combination of approaches personalized to your unique situation.

The main treatments they use are medication such as antidepressants and antipsychotics, and various types of talking therapies. The Advanced Psychiatric Associates team can help you find the approach that works best for you.

If you want to know more about the adult psychiatry services available and how they can help you, call Advanced Psychiatric Associates or book an appointment online today.