A psychiatrist is a medical doctor whose special job is the treatment of mental illness. They went to medical school, like a heart doctor or a skin doctor, and then trained further in problems of the mind. They can give medicine; they may also talk with patients. This is the point people mix up, kindly: a psychologist studies the mind and often does talking therapy, but is usually not that kind of medical doctor, and cannot always prescribe the same medicines. Psychiatrist is a respectful job title. Informal English sometimes says “shrink,” but that is slang, often a joke. If you need the proper word for the doctor in a hospital’s mental-health department, this is it.