Is anyone here familiar enough with Physiatry to know why it is regarded by some traditional MDs as "quack medicine" ?

I think that is merely an unfounded prejudice on the part of your GP. Perhaps he or she had it confused with something else.

Physiatry is a recognized discipline, and I know of no reputable medical institution that stigmatizes it.

But confused with what?

I specifically challenged him on it and asked if he meant it similar to the way DOs used to be regarded ( we are located less than ten miles from a very highly regarded and reputable Osteopathic teaching hospital) and he said no, it wasn’t like that but definitely worse.

I plan to bring it up again next office visit but I wanted to do as much information gathering as possible prior to that.

If he is really being that much of an ignorant jerk about this, I may be tempted to reconsider my choice if primary care Doc.

I fail to understand his thinking, but maybe there is something I don’t know, or maybe he hates Kinesiology and Physical Therapy, too.

That’s a good point. I’ll have to ask him about it.

But somehow he doesn’t really strike me as a Rolfing kind of a guy. But more to the point I’d be interested to see if he would judge it as harshly.

According to the Wikipedia article, physiatry is a medical specialty that takes four years college degree and 4 years residence. much like a podiatrist, with a different area of specialty.

Psychiatrists go through the same basic educational process as other MDs. Four years of college, four years of medical school. At that point, you’re allowed to call yourself MD—doctor of medicine.
In the “old days” many new docs went into practice as GPs after a year of internship. Those who wanted to be specialists went into residency in pediatrics, OB/GYN, psychiatry, orthopedics, etc. These days the GP has given way to the FP, and they go through a 3 year residency focusing on primary care. Residencies for other specialties, including psychiatry, are typically 4 years.
We live in an increasingly high tech world, and many areas of medical practice are becoming more and more focused on “hard science”, with diagnoses dependent almost totally on test results and patient response that can measured in data that can quantified. Doctors who are comfortable in that world are sometimes uncomfortable with what they consider soft science, where in most cases, you make your diagnosis by talking to the patient and you judge your successes by how the patient says he/she feels.

@MagsRags

I appreciate the response and now realize that I should have added a sentence to my original question, namely: I am NOT misspelling Psychiatrist. It is indeed Physiatrist. It has several branches to it such as Physical Rehabilitatio, Sports Medicine injuries, Palliative care, etc.

Oh. As Emily Litella would say, never mind

They should have put a little more time into choosing a less unfortunate name IMHO.

I found this article interesting reading re: what a physiatrist’s training is and what they actually do.
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/317515-overview

I think some of the “soft science” prejudices might apply here as well, using heat, massage, TENS for treatment.

All I can say is that my family physician insisted on treating my back pain with NSAIDs until my kidneys made it clear they wouldn’t tolerate them any longer. At that point he said there was nothing he could do and that I would have to “live with it.”

However, a rehabilitation physician, aka a Physiatrist, was able to help me figure out why my back was hurting in addition to the arthritis and worked with a physical therapist to get the pain to go away. Thank God for tens units, among many other things.

Your doctor seems to have an unreasonable prejudice against a valid and helpful branch of the medical specialty.

Quack medicine is usually something that mainstream medicine does not profit from. Or if it actually cures, rather than treat. If it allows a patient to be healthy without a doctor involved. A lack of pharmaceutical drugs is considered quackery. Most all ailments these days, we are told and sure hope, are fixed with a pill. Natural remedies you can make at home are considered quackery, or at least they will say “These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA”. The FDA never fails to evaluate pharmaceutical drugs.

I appreciate all of your helpful comments. Lurve to everybody.

This confirms my initial impressions about this specialty.

@Darbio

What you said kind of sums things up in a nutshell.

This Doc and I will definitely be having another conversation about this in the near future. He already knows that I don’t regard Doctors as Omniscient Beings so I don’t think he will be surprised at my questioning his opinion about this :)

Right now the only two things that traditional medicine has to offer me are surgery and painkillers. If a Physiatrist happens to have an alternative treatment which will enable me to either eliminate or significantly reduce the amount of painkillers necessary just for me to function, I’m fine with that.

I’ll know for certain whether it works or not in fairly short order. I am aware of the Placebo effect regarding any type of alternate treatment. However no amount of placebo is going to do anything for a knee with no cartilage left :).

It will either work or it won’t. Not much middle ground there. That is presuming that there exists any alternative that a Physiatrist can come up with.