Editorial standards

shrinkiatry is built to be trusted on a subject where trust is easy to lose: the inner workings of a profession. These are the standards every page is held to, and we publish them because a site that asks for your trust should show its work.

Accuracy first

Content is written to be accurate first and engaging second. Factual claims are tied to real, citable sources, and those sources are listed on the page. When the evidence is mixed, thin, or limited to a specific context, we say so rather than rounding up to a clean answer. We'd rather a page admit uncertainty than pretend to a precision it doesn't have.

Reviewed by a psychiatrist

Every article is written or reviewed by Shariq Refai, MD, MBA, FAPA, a board-certified psychiatrist, before publication, and carries a last-reviewed date. Pages are revisited when the facts change, for example when regulations, guidelines, or workforce data update.

Sourcing and citation

For rules and structures, we cite the body that sets the rule, such as the ACGME, the ABPN, the DEA, or HRSA. For clinical and scientific claims, we prefer peer-reviewed research, systematic reviews, and guidelines over secondary coverage, and we attribute statistics to their source with a date where it matters. How we weigh competing evidence is described in evidence methodology.

Independent and ad-free

shrinkiatry runs no advertising, sells nothing, and takes no affiliate or referral commissions. What an article says is decided by the evidence, not by a commercial interest. Where the editor has a financial interest, such as shrinkMD, it's disclosed plainly on the pages where it's relevant, and references to shrinkMD are made because it's the network's clinical practice, not as paid placement.

Commentary is labeled

We distinguish reported, sourced explanation from opinion. Opinion and editorial content are clearly marked as such, because the line between describing the profession and arguing about it should always be visible to the reader.

Careful, respectful language

We write about people at their most vulnerable, so language matters. We avoid stigmatizing framing, we don't sensationalize, and we describe conditions and the people who have them with care. We also avoid the kind of false balance that treats a fringe claim as equal to a settled one.

Not medical advice

shrinkiatry explains the profession. It doesn't diagnose, treat, or give individualized medical advice, and reading it doesn't create a doctor-patient relationship. If you need care, shrinkMD is the network's clinical practice. See the full medical disclaimer.

Voice

The writing is plain, direct, and human. We use contractions, keep sentences clear, avoid hype and scare quotes, and write so that a psychiatrist, a resident, a journalist, and a curious patient can all read the same page and come away with an accurate picture.

Telling us we got it wrong

If something is inaccurate, we want to fix it openly. See our corrections policy or email support@shrinkiatry.com.