psychiatric

Pluralpsychiatrics

1. 1
   adjective

   Relating to the medical field concerned with mental disorders and their treatment.

   After the assessment, he was referred for psychiatric treatment.

   The court ordered a full psychiatric evaluation before sentencing.

2. 2
   noundatedcountable

   A person who has a psychiatric or mental disorder.

   The asylum admitted three new psychiatrics that winter.

   They are the tuberculars, the psychiatrics, and the older men suffering from chronic conditions. All of those men are totally disabled.

   1954, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations, Hearings

   Note

   Here the adjective has become a count noun with an ordinary plural, psychiatrics. It belongs to mid-century institutional English: the House Committee on Appropriations hearings of 1954 list "the tuberculars, the psychiatrics" side by side, naming patients by their condition. That habit now reads as dated. Outside historical writing, say "psychiatric patient" or "a person with a psychiatric disorder" instead.

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