In the past two decades, psychiatry in Thailand has undergone a major evolution. From a neglected and often ridiculed status as being backward as well as unscientific, psychiatry has now emerged as an important and essential discipline in the practice of medicine. In this generation of new scientific discoveries of the biological and neurochemical basis of psychiatric disorders and more effective psychopharmacological agents, Psychiatry is no longer an outcast but becomes an important team member in the provision of health care, especially on the private practice setting. The data collected at Samitivej Hospital of the number of outpatients and inpatients of each medical specialty in 1996 shows that the total outpatient psychiatric patients visits was 10,142, an impressive figure considering the few number of psychiatrists practicing, an equivalent of approximately three full time psychiatrists, with no other trained parapsychiatric team members. Psychiatric in-patients totaled 108 cases in spite of the lack of in-patient psychiatric facilities.