Psychiatrists are medical doctors who specialize in mental health and are qualified to assess both the physical and mental manifestations of a condition. This makes them key pieces of the process of treating addicts because these complex diseases inherently combine physical and mental symptoms:
The physical symptoms of addiction are unique to each drug, but the mental symptoms are not. The reward centers are rewired during the process of active addiction, regardless of substance, these are changes that occur for all substance abuse. Psychiatric experts recognize the signs of this change and through their experiences, are able to treat the affected brain with psychiatric care.
Patients struggling with addiction often are unaware of a latent mental illness such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Some addicts fall into a pattern of addiction as a way of self-medicating their illness and certain illnesses are exacerbated by substance abuse. These are the complex issues that psychiatrists are prepared to untangle and properly treat.
All psychiatric care professionals are qualified to treat addiction, but some receive special training to better prepare themselves to address the unique needs of addicts with co-occurring disorders. The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) provides an additional certification for psychiatrists who treat addicts for their addiction/s, for mental health conditions, or both.