Psych Flashcards
Questions to ask a suicidal patient who has not attempted suicide
- Do you still get pleasure out of life?
- Are you able to face each day?
- Do you feel life is a burden?
- Do you wish it will all end?
- Have you ever thought about ending your own life?
- What is stopping you from trying to commit suicide?
- Have you thought about how you would do it?
Questions to ask a patient who has attempted suicide
- Was it premeditated?
- Did you make any attempts to stop people from finding you?
- Did you tell anyone about it?
- Did you write a suicide note/ change your will Violent act?
- Did you think it would be final/ reversible?
- Do you have any regrets?
- Did you try and get help after the attempt? Previous attempts?
- Alcohol/ drugs involved?
Questions for a depressed patient
- Low mood?
- Duration?
- Anhedonia
- Loss of interest in hobbies?
- Anergia
- Diurnal variation (worse in mornings?)
- Poor concentration/ memory
- Poor sleep?
- Appetite/ weight Guilt/ worthlessness
- Suicidal ideation?
Questions for the manic patient?
- Excessive spending?
- Decreased sleep?
- Ambitions?
- Grandiose ideas
- Disinhibition
- Sexual energy/ libido
- Flight of ideas
- Pressure of speech
Questions for the delusional patient
- Has anything been worrying you lately?
- What’s been on your mind?
- Has anything odd been happening to you lately that others are finding it difficult to believe?
Questions for a patient with hallucinations
- Has anything unusual happened to you recently?
- Did you hear voices which no one else can hear?
- Did you ever see things that are strange or that other people cannot see?
First rank symptoms of schizophrenia
- Thought possession (insertion, withdrawal. broadcasting)
- Passivity phenomena (somatic, thoughts, emotions, acts)
- Auditory hallucinations (usually 3 rd person, thought echo or commentary)
- Delusional perception
What is a delusion?
A false belief which is kept despite proof to the contrary and out of keeping with the patient’s social, cultural and educational backgrounds
Questions to ask the anxious patient?
- Feelings of worry/ apprehension?
- Irritability
- Restlessness
- Depersonalisation
- Insomnia
- Psychogenic symptoms
- Memory problems
Questions to ask about panic attacks?
- Fear/ feeling of threat, panic or doom which is out of proportion to the perceived danger
- Avoidance of anything that may trigger the panic attack
- What triggers it?
- How severe is the panic attack?
Questions about phobias
- How often?
- Trigger avoidance
- Safe at home?
- Do they need anyone to be at home with them?
- How well do you do in crowds? anonymous or not?
- Affect on a day to day relationships
OCD questions
- An intrusive thought
- Recognition it’s their own Irrational feeling?
- The resistance of these thoughts?
PTSD Questions
- Flashbacks
- Panic attacks
- Emotional numbing
- Avoidance
- Nightmares
- Over arousal
- Depression
- Substance misuse
Features of dependence
- Stereotypes pattern
- Primacy
- Tolerance
- Withdrawal
- Relief drinking (to stop withdrawal symptoms)
- Compulsion to drink
- Relapse after abstinence
Questions to ask an alcoholic patient
- What is drunk?
- How much?
- How often?
- Where?
- When?
- Triggering?
- Binges?
- When did this start?
- Abstinent?
- Have you sought help before?
- FH?
SCOFF Questionnaire
- Sick: do you make yourself feel sick?
- Control: do you worry you have lost control over what you eat?
- One stone: loss in the last three months?
- Fat: do you think you are too fat when others think you are too thin?
- Food: Do you think food dominates your life?
Eating disorder questions
- How would you feel if you gained weight?
- How do you see yourself when you look in the mirror?
- Amenorrhea?
Eating disorder Biological symptoms
- Lanugo hair
- Breast atrophy
- Skin looks rough
- Low BP
- Extremities cold