You have to consider that psychiatry is the only branch of medicine where MDs are attacked by their patients, spat on, stalked, have their families threatened, have delusional patients create dangerous fantasies about them and act them out, get physically injured by there patients, lied to by their patients repeatedly, have patients become abusive and doctor hop when they hear things they don't like, and in general put up with inordinate amounts of abuse. The pay scale for psychiatrists is not in line with that much risk. Young medical students don't choose psychiatry precisely for these above reasons. The average age of a psychiatrist is over 50. They are not being replaced. You think its hard to find a Dr now. Wait 10 years.

No radiologist, cardiologist, or pediatrician has to deal with this level of risk. Young doctors know that. Why should they go into a branch of medicine to treat us when they can go into dermatology and make twice as much money and no one assaults them. Keep in mind, just because the psychiatrists disappear doesn't mean psychotic or violent or suicidal patients will suddenly disappear. The estimates are that their will be a critical shortage of psychiatrists to treat severe mental illnesses in just a decade. Something in the system needs to change.