Officially 20 minutes, and my appointments usually are 20 minutes. Sometimes they go 30 minutes, if really needed, at no extra charge. Only on rare occasions (a few times in the last 13 years) has my psychiatrist asked to cut the session short to 15 minutes for some important reason. When I have been very ill and needed an emergency appointment, very often he gives me a double session (about 45/50 mins), though I do have to pay for a double session in those rare cases, but they're worth it. Out of network psychiatrist.

My husband's psychiatrist has given him anywhere from 5 mins to 20, usually 10 mins. In-network psychiatrist.

My psychiatrist is basically partly retired and only keeps his long-term patients, including me. I think he only sees patients between 10 am and 4 pm nowadays, and less on Fridays. He always reserves some time for emergency appointments. Since he does his own billing and has no secretary, he allows himself time between patients a lot, but if a patient is really unwell he'll let them eat into his administrative work time.

I think much older psychiatrists tend to give more time to their patients than younger psychiatrists. I think younger psychiatrists are more money hungry (or have big med school debts to pay off) and just no longer have the same bedside manners as older psychiatrists. I know there are exceptions.

There are a lot of psychiatrists in my area, but many do not accept insurance, or are in-network. That's a drag, but they know they can get away with it. From my experience, in my area, the psychiatrists and psychologists that don't accept insurance tend to give longer sessions. It makes sense since they are ultimately earning more money per patient/client. However, newer psychiatrists and psychologists who have private practices need to build up their patient loads. That's usually when they take popular insurance plans (i.e. Medicare, Aetna, Cigna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, etc.). Obviously patients with insurance flock to them, especially if they really can't afford more than a co-pay or are unable to pay 100% upfront and have to wait for out-of-network reimbursements. Then the younger psychiatrists build up a real "in-and-out" situation where they're cranking in as much money (patients) as they can per hour.

I know that a lot of people live in areas where there are few psychiatrists and therapists compared to the patient/client demand. For that reason, and for the reason of cheaper rates (and/or more providers taking insurance) Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners seem to help make up the difference. In five US states (Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, New Mexico, and Louisiana) even some specially training psychologists are allowed to prescribe psychiatric medications. That's certainly a way to get more face-to-face time with a prescriber.

I know I'm going long now...Skip my story below, if you like.

My first psychiatrist (16 years ago) would see me for meds and also led a group therapy for some of his patients. My husband's current psychiatrist does this, though my husband doesn't attend the group therapy part. They're both older gentleman close to retirement age. The advantage of their system is that one could share info with them during or after the group therapy. Also, this setup was what finally led to my bipolar diagnosis. When I first started seeing that pdoc it was only for depression. He prescribed Lexapro. During the three sessions he saw me in group therapy, he witnessed my switch to hypomania/mania. He tapped me on the shoulder afterwards and said I had "manic depression" and that I should go off the Lexapro and onto a moodstabilizer. Of course I quit him right there and then, and didn't see him again until the day before my first psychiatrist hospitalization a year later. All hell had really broken loose!

I hope that anyone that answers spike's post here that lives outside of the US, will indicate that. I'd be curious to see what any differences there may be across the world.