My sister is an MD. I go to a DO as my primary doctor. One is just as legit as the other. Both go through an entire med school program. The DO designation has exactly the same rights and responsibilities as an MD. They both have state board exams, licenses, etc and can practice medicine, write prescriptions, and when applicable to their specialty, perform surgery. You can have full confidence in one having equally legitimate credentials as the other from an academic standpoint. Which degree is conferred on a med student depends on the school/program they attend. 29 Med schools confer a DO degree on completion; 137 confer an MD degree. DO curriculum is extremely similar to the MD curriculum, but DO students get an extra 300-500 hours training and extra attention to the muscular-skeletal system. (My DO is in family practice seeing people for almost everything, but she's extra smart with muscular-skeletal issues- great for folks with bad backs and arthritis, etc). After my sister got her MD, she specialized in neonatology and went through a fellowship to have that specialty. Similarly, DO's can further their training and choose a specialty. Sounds like yours chose psychiatry. You should feel just as confident seeing a DO with a psychiatry specialty as you would an MD with a psychiatry specialty.