How Long Do I Need to See a Psychiatrist?

Summary: When you have mental health issues and need professional support, one thing you likely wonder is how long do I need to see a psychiatrist, or your time in treatment. The answer depends on a variety of factors unique to you: there’s not a one-size-fits-all answer to this question.

Key Points:

Your overall diagnosis plays a role in how long you may need to see a psychiatrist.
The severity of your symptoms contributes to the amount of time in treatment you need.
Your previous mental health history contributes to how long your treatment may last.
Chronic conditions often require longer time-in-treatment than acute problems.

Each Person is Different: Treatment Length is Tailored to Your Needs

There’s no way to determine ahead of time how long your treatment will last. Anyone with a definitive answer to the question how long do I need to see a psychiatrist is giving you an educated guess, at best. In fact, we don’t recommend pursuing treatment with a provider who tells you exactly how long you’ll need to see a psychiatrist for your mental health issues.

Let’s quickly review and expand on the key points above, because they matter. Things that affect how long you need to see a psychiatrist, in general, include the following.

What Affects Time-in-Treatment? Quantitative Factors

Your diagnosis. Some mental health disorders are complex, treatment resistant, and may require long-term support. Others – while not simple – may be more straightforward and require a shorter treatment duration.
Symptom severity. If your symptoms are intense, frequent, and very disruptive, you may require significant time-in-treatment. However, if your symptoms are mild and moderately/minimally disruptive, you may need less time-in-treatment.
Previous history. If you’ve tried treatment with medication without success, it may take time – several months or longer – for changes in medication to affect your symptoms and provide the relief you require.
Chronic vs. Acute. Disorders that commonly persist across the lifespan – some types of depression, psychosis, and others – will likely require longer treatment than others, such as anxiety related to a specific recent or upcoming event or major life change.

It’s also important to recognize that qualitative factors play a role in any answer to questions like how long do I need to see a psychiatrist. Consider the following.

What Affects Time-in-Treatment? Qualitative Factors

Your relationship with your psychiatrist. If you establish a positive therapeutic alliance based on empathy, honesty, mutual respect, and trust, you may make progress more quickly than you would if your relationship with you psychiatrist is not positive.
Your attitude toward treatment. If you believe in the mental health treatment process – and commit to it – you may make progress more quickly than you will if you doubt the process, question the validity of treatment, or you’re doing it to make someone else happy.
Your adherence to treatment. This means not only that you show up for your psychiatry appointments, but that you do the work, whether actual treatment homework or applying what you learn in treatment to life and behavior. Overall, the more you commit to the work of healing, the more you get out of the healing process.

Now let’s take a look at the latest research on the topic, and review the input of well-respected mental health experts about how long it may take treatment to be effective.

Time in Outpatient Psychiatry: What to Expect

It’s important to understand that the longer your mental illness has gone undiagnosed or untreated, the longer your treatment may take. The earlier you receive an accurate diagnosis and initiate professional support with a psychiatrist, the better your long-term outcome is likely to be. And depending on your diagnosis, early detection and treatment may reduce the time you need to spend in treatment with a psychiatrist.

A report from the American Psychological Association (APA) called “How Long Wil it Take For Treatment to Work” encourages patients to consider all of the following factors when attempting to predict the time they’ll need to spend in treatment with a psychiatrist.

The APA: What to Think About When Planning Treatment

A successful endpoint to therapy may be defined as when you reach the goals for treatment you set with your psychiatrist at the beginning of treatment.
It’s essential to establish goals a discuss a possible timeline when you initiate treatment.
You and your psychiatrist may adjust your initial estimates – lengthening or shortening your original estimate – based on your treatment progress.
Most research indicates that longer time-in-treatment – regardless of the diagnosis – is associated with better overall outcomes.

While some recent research indicates brief psychiatric intervention is effective for acute emergencies – especially for children and adolescents – this research generally refers to interventions that prevent short-term harm, rather than long-term healing and recovery.

The APA: Research Estimates Time-in-Treatment

Patient self-reports on mental health symptoms indicate about half of people in outpatient treatment say it takes 15-20 individual sessions to recover.

Once weekly, this means around 4-5 months.

Some patients report improvement with 12-16 sessions of individual outpatient psychiatry.

Once weekly, this means 3-4 months.

Patients and psychiatrists agree that 20-30 sessions offer “more complete remission” and lead to “greater confidence in the skills required to maintain treatment gains.”
Co-occurring disorders and personality-type disorders often require longer treatment – 12 to 18 months – to meet mutually agreed upon treatment goals, consolidate gains, and promote long-term success.
A minority of mental health patients may require ongoing maintenance and care to preserve progress, reaffirm goals and commitments, and prevent emergency/crisis hospitalization or rehospitalization.

Note: long-term medication management is not uncommon for some diagnoses that aren’t considered complex or treatment-resistant but require medication to maintain desired neurochemical function and balance in the brain.

How Do I Plan If There’s No Definitive Answer?

Given that some conditions may not require a long time to treat, and others will require significant time to treat, and some may require a couple of visits while others may require lifelong maintenance, the best way to plan is to plan to be flexible.

The healing path is not always linear, and does not aways follow a simple path. You may make significant gains in the first month, and plateau while you work through challenging issues: please don’t be surprise or discouraged if this happens. In contrast, you may feel like you’re spinning your wheels for a period of time, then make real, life-changing breakthroughs.

In either case, the best way to handle the unknown, unpredictable, or unexpected is to be aware that there’s a degree of uncertainty involved in any type of medical treatment, and that the optimal way to manage that uncertainty is to communicate your experiences – needs, goals, concerns – in an open and honest manner with your psychiatrist.

Together, you can collaborate on what works best, use your time-in-treatment efficiently, and move together toward healing and full recovery.

Angus Whyte

Angus Whyte has an extensive background in neuroscience, behavioral health, adolescent development, and mindfulness, including lab work in behavioral neurobiology and a decade of writing articles on mental health and mental health treatment. In addition, Angus brings twenty years of experience as a yoga teacher and experiential educator to his work for Crownview. He’s an expert at synthesizing complex concepts into accessible content that helps patients, providers, and families understand the nuances of mental health treatment, with the ultimate goal of improving outcomes and quality of life for all stakeholders.