how much do psychologists/psychiatrists cost?

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and how many sessions would i have to do with one before they wouold prescribe medication? do antidepressants even work to treat depression??

depends on what your problems is

different doctors charge different prices so you only need to ask the places what the doctors will charge and how many times you need to go depends on your problems

ok well how much do they cost where YOU live?

Where I live there is no set rate that every psychologist charges, but the one I see usually charges 120.00 an hour, but I've been seeing him so long and my medical only covers 10 appointments a year, so once my medical runs out he charges me 50.00 an hour. Psychiatrists are covered by our medical so I have no idea how much they charge, and here psychologists can't prescribe medication , only psychiatrists or your family doctor

I had 4 sessions with a relatively expensive and very competent psychologist, who did a neuropsychological evaluation and combined it with my and family history. Her base charge is $140/hr. This may also be a function of the high cost of living in my area. My total cost is $660. Her difficultly lay in trying to diagnose me at an advanced age and (probably) my ability to pass for an NT. I guess I'm a very high performing Aspie.

in most (if not all) states in the US you would see a psychiatrist for medication. a psychologist is not going to be legally able to write a prescription for medication for you. if you are anxious and just need something to help with that, a GP can write a script out for you.

i wish i could tell you the going rate for a psychiatrist, but sorry, i've not needed to see one in a very long time. when i saw one 30 years ago in a cheaper part of the country it was $90 per 45-minute session. i can only assume it's at least doubled by now. for a psychologist, if you're on a budget, if there are any major universities near you with graduate psychology programs, they might have a sliding scale clinic that would suit your resources.

good luck!

Ok, update. For evaluation purposes, a psychologist in my hometown now charges $150 per 50 minute hour. I'd still go the psych grad program route, unless you can afford otherwise.

I can speak only for my psychiatrist's office:
The initial appointment with the psychiatrist was $250 (for about 50 minutes, I guess)
Follow-up med-checks are $85. They're 15-20 minutes.
Psychologists don't prescribe medication (except in one state, I think.. not this state, though.) A 50-minute appointment with a therapist/psychologist is $120.

A psychiatrist usually prescribes something the first time you see them. Psychiatrists rarely do anything EXCEPT deal with meds.

You may get good help even with a psych grad student--maybe better, seeing as they will have had education specifically about autism and people educated thirty or forty years ago will not have, and if they worked mostly with adults may never have diagnosed autism because it is usually diagnosed in children. Grad students are the people who do coaching/counseling at my university, and students and staff get in for free. The one I have been working with has been really helpful. The one drawback is that, like all grad students, they eventually get their degrees and move on; frankly, I'm a little worried whether my counselor next year will be as helpful, but I can always claim personality conflict and request someone else. Better not judge before I actually meet them, though!

My psychiatrist charges $150 a hour (United States). Usually your first visit is a "diagnostic" session and costs like $250. If the psychiatrist thinks you would benefit from medication you will walk out the first/second session with a prescription. If you don't have insurance you could bring the Walmart 4 dollar prescription list to your session and he/she could pick something from that list.
Walmart 4 Dollar Prescription List. If your doctor picks something new like Pristiq (not on walmart list) you could pay hundreds a month.

Yes, medication does help. You may have to tweak your medication to see what dose is appropriate. You have to take it regularly and it could take 2-4 weeks to feel anything. You may or may not get side-effects. My current medication is not giving me any side-effects....however, another person could take the same medication and puke or whatever.

It's a shame how so many of you guys are paying ridiculous amounts of money. On my health insurance (I'm still a dependent because of college and all so my insurance is one of the best) my appointments would only cost me about 15 dollars a session if that. My health insurance would pay the rest. I haven't seen a psychologist in years so the cost may change but for one doctor, I didn't have to pay anything at all. My recommendation is everyone should be covered with some kind of insurance before appointments because without it, your wallet will take a beating. In the state I live in, everyone has to have health insurance.

I think that depends on what it is and who it is. You have to be medicating the right condition, too, and the diagnosis isn't necessarily the condition. If it's depression, there are multiple neurotransmitters that could be the problem, assuming that it is a chemical problem to begin with.
My favorite site for medication info is crazymeds.us

Insurance is a joke. My insurance from my previous employer cried "pre-existing condition". When I was on my parents insurance about 40% of my bill was covered by the insurance. Mental health has the worst coverage.

Well in my case it has helped. I know without it I would have killed myself a long time ago. I am not saying that to be shocking either. If your depressed you should try EVERY avenue you can before going on meds. However, if you get desperate (like me) and need some help, don't rule it out. My cousin's family was against psychiatric medication even though he was bipolar. They woke up one morning to find a suicide note on his door and his body and a rifle on the floor. Would medications have saved his life? Maybe, Maybe not....I think it was worth a try though.

Long-established mental illness almost always has a chemical component. If you've been depressed for two weeks (just barely long enough to even qualify for the diagnosis), you may not yet have established changes in your synapses and metabolism. But if it's been two months... well, it doesn't matter whether it started out as purely mental (as in "the messages traveling through your nervous system"); you can pretty much bet there's physical involvement now too (as in "the physical structure of your nervous system").

Of course, whether any specific antidepressant--or any known antidepressant--will help you is still not certain. These drugs aren't magic bullets, and chances are that while the right drug will produce an improvement, almost no drug will produce a complete remission unless you take the initiative (which can mean "sticking your foot out of bed" in the early stages) and learn how to re-structure the thoughts and feelings that have been feeding into the cycle. You can successfully live with recurrent depression, I think, if you know how to gauge the warning signals and head it off before it becomes disabling.

Agreed - everyone should have access to care. Your state must have an affordable insurance program available for everyone, then (Mass. by any chance?). That's really a blessing for you. It's not that way everywhere.

And costs for care are outrageous. We had to go to the ER a couple of years ago for a medical issue and my kid was hospitalized for one (1) day. The bill came to $14,000. Thankfully, we did have employer medical insurance so my out of pocket was $250.

I have worked at many jobs where mental/behavioral health coverage was not included in the insurance package. One would think it would be a required component, but I don't believe there are any national laws that require that (if there are, they must be pretty new).

So, yes, it would be extraordinarily helpful if everyone could have health insurance, especially insurance that covered behavioral health. Too bad there's not universal coverage in the states.

"high risk pool" summary here