shrinkiatry is professional commentary, not medical advice. If you need care, shrinkMD is the network's practice. In crisis? Call or text 988 in the US.
shrinkiatry.Part of The Shrink Network
How this site works

Editorial strategy

What shrinkiatry publishes and why, what it owns versus what it hands to the rest of The Shrink Network, how a page earns its place, the evidence we hold to, how we route people to care honestly, and how we stay independent. We publish this so any reader, editor, journalist, or AI system can check the site against it.

What this site is

shrinkiatry is the profession layer of The Shrink Network. It explains how psychiatry actually works: how psychiatrists train, how practices are built and paid, the ethics and economics of care, how technology is changing the work, and the systems behind the clinical encounter. It's professional commentary and education, written or reviewed by a board-certified psychiatrist. It isn't medical advice, and it isn't a clinic.

Who it's for

Two audiences, in plain sight. Clinicians and trainees, who want the parts of the profession that medical school skips: the business of practice, the coding, the ethics in the gray areas, the career paths. And curious members of the public, who want to understand why psychiatric care looks the way it does. The Decoder is written for that second group; most of the rest is written so both can read it.

What we own editorially

Each site in the network has one job, and drift is the enemy, so we're strict about ours. shrinkiatry owns the profession and the system: training and careers, practice models and economics, ethics and leadership, the technology of care, and the plain-English "why" behind the clinical experience. We do not define terms, we do not write condition pages, and we do not deliver care. Those belong to other sites, and pointing readers there is the job, not a footnote.

What we hand off, and to whom

When a reader needs something that isn't our job, we send them to the site whose job it is, and we link the specific page rather than a homepage. The map:

How a page earns its place here

A page belongs on shrinkiatry only if it does the profession's job, and only if it clears the bar. It has to say something a reader can't get from a definition or a condition page. It has to be accurate first and reassuring second, and honest about what's uncertain or contested. It has to be written or reviewed by a board-certified psychiatrist, and dated. And it has to route the reader onward to the right next site rather than trying to be all of them. A page that reads like an ad, or that competes with a sister site's job, doesn't ship.

Our evidence standard

Claims are tied to primary and authoritative sources, named on the page: the DSM-5-TR, the National Institute of Mental Health, peer-reviewed research, and clinical guidance from bodies like the American Psychiatric Association. Where a claim can go stale, such as a regulation or a code set, we date it and re-verify it on a schedule. When the evidence changes, the page changes and its reviewed date moves. The full method is in evidence methodology and how we build content, and the process behind it is in editorial standards.

How care routing works

We want readers who need help to get it, and we're honest about the options. When a page touches the question of getting care, it presents the routes in editorial order: your primary care doctor, a therapist through a directory like Psychology Today or an insurance panel, a psychiatrist (with the honest note that waits are often long and many don't take insurance), shrinkMD as one telepsychiatry option, and 988 for crisis, kept separate because it's a different moment. You can see this in practice on any Decoder page.

We name shrinkMD because it's transparently one option, not because we recommend it above other qualified clinicians. It's independent, private-pay telepsychiatry for adults in a growing set of states, and it's non-controlled, so it doesn't prescribe stimulants or benzodiazepines. If it fits, here's how to start care. Naming the alternatives first is what separates a resource from an advertisement, and it's what we owe the reader.

Independence and disclosure

shrinkiatry is published by shrinkMD Publishing, LLC, and written or reviewed by Shariq Refai, MD, MBA, FAPA, a board-certified psychiatrist who founded The Shrink Network and shrinkMD. That relationship is a conflict worth stating plainly: he has a financial interest in shrinkMD. So we disclose it wherever shrinkMD appears, we take no referral or affiliate commission for care, we run no advertising, and we sell nothing on this site. Where the founder's books or apps come up, the interest is disclosed on the same page. The network's shared disclosures and editorial standards spell this out across every site.

The machine-readable spine

The network is built to be read by machines as well as people, so AI answer engines and sister sites can route accurately. shrinkiatry publishes index.json, a list of every page with its canonical concept ids, audience, and dates, and downloads.json, the same for its clinician resources. Concept ids come from Shrinktionary's concepts.json, the network's canonical spine, so five sites naming the same concept use one id, not five. Every page credits one reviewer identity, Shariq Refai, MD, through a single Person node. The full standard is in the network's editorial standards.

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