My wife is suffering from depression. It looks like her M.D.
psychiatrist exhausted his options, however he is still trying. I?d
like her to go next level up ? Ph.D. psychiatrist ? for consultation.
Thank you.

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Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 16 Sep 2004 09:40 PDT

By definition, a psychiatrist is a physician who holds either an M.D.
or a D.O. degree. Are you looking for a physician who has a Ph.D. in
addition to his or her medical degree? Or are you looking for a Ph.D.
psychologist?

This may be helpful:

http://www.drpatrick.com/faq.htm

The main difference between a psychologist and a psychiatrist is that
a psychiatrist prescribes medication and a psychologist does
counseling/therapy (although a few psychiatrists do therapy as well). 
If your looking for someone to provide counseling/therapy, there are
many good therapists that don't necessairly have a Ph.D., but are very
well qualified to provide counseling.  The alphabet soup after their
name includes Ph.D., Psy.D., M.A., MSW.  Overall what I recommend to
people is that they find someone they are able to connect with
personally.  Ultimately, therapy is going to be most successful if the
relationships is there.  Someone may be the incredibly qualified and
have a bunch of letters after their name, but if the relationship
isn't there, therapy isn't going to work.  Regardless, here's some
avenues I'd recommend to find a therapist in your area...

1) If you have insurance, see what that provides as far a coverage for
mental health services.  If your lucky enough to have insurance that
covers counseling, your insurance company will probably provide you
with a book of treatment providers in your area.

2) See if your wife's current psychiatrist has any recommendations. 
My guess is he/she know some people in your area that are good.

3) Check out this website.  http://www.abpp.org/directory/  It
provides a directory of board-certified counselors in your area. 
You'd want either a clinical or a counseling psychologist.  A
therapist doesn't need to be board certified to be good, it's just an
extra certification that some therapists choose to pursue.  This is
just a handy directory to find someone.

4) If you don't have insurance, there are probably several sliding
scale clinics in your area that can provide excellent treatment. 
Sliding scale clinics base their fee on the household income.  Your
wife's psychiatrists may know those as well, but you might also try
googling "sliding scale counseling chicago" to see what you can find
that way as well.  Some go as low as $5 or $10 a session.

Ultimately, a combination of both medication and counseling has been
found to be the most effective treatment for depression.  So your wife
may continue to see her psychiatrist while also seeking therapy.  Best
of luck to both you and your wife.