I need help to know if my son needs a Psychiatrist or Clinical Psycologist

Family
1

My son is in graduate school and over the last month he has started to have symptoms of what apprear to be paranoid schizophrenia. He is going in-out of psychotic episodes and has extreme paranoia. Can anyone please let me know if he likely needs a Psychiatrist of Clinical Psycologist, or something else or a combination? Also, he has mild autism – so i need a doctor that can relate, diagnose and provide help for all of this and I need to get him in somewhere in the next couple days if possible

thanks.

2

Definitely get him into an evaluation as quickly as possible - the sooner someone who is developing psychosis / schizophrenia gets treatment, the better the outcome.

Here is a good place to start:

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Try to find a “behavioral health” professional who often works with people with psychotic disorders and paranoia. Go there and if they don’t have what your son needs, keep asking for referrals until your son gets the help he needs.

Medication is prescribed by psychiatrists, not psychologists in most US states…

Best to you

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When my son started to develop the same symptoms, we had a psychologist. He told us to find a psychiatrist. They are more trained in evaluating and prescribing the correct meds.

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5

Thanks for the response back. much appreciated. we have identified a couple places for help in our area now and are working on getting him in this week.

thanks

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