Psychiatry Flashcards
What is ADHD?
Extreme end of hyperactivity and inability to concentrate.
Affects ability to carry out everyday tasks, develop normal skills and perform well in school.
Features must be consistent across various settings (both school and home).
What are the common features of ADHD?
- Short attention span
- Quick activity switching
- Quickly losing interest in tasks/giving up
- Constantly moving/fidgeting
- Impulsive behaviour
- Disruptiuve/rule breaking
How is ADHD managed?
- Educating both child and parents about condition.
- Healthy diet and exercise
- Medication (methylphenidate)
What is depression?
Persistent feelings of:
- Low mood
- Low energy
- Reduced enjoyment of activities
What are the two core symptoms of depression?
- Low mood
- Anhedonia (lack of pleasure/interest in activities)
What are the emotional symptoms of depression?
- Anxiety
- Irritability
- Low self-esteem
- Guilt
- Hopelessness about the future
What are the cognitive symptoms of depression?
- Poor concentration
- Slow thoughts
- Poor memory
What are the physical symptoms of depression?
- Low energy (TATT)
- Abnormal sleep (difficulty waking in the mornings)
- Poor appetite/overeating
- Slow movements
What should a depression risk assessment include?
- Self-neglect
- Self-harm
- Harm to others
- Suicide
What is the questionnaire of choice to assess severity of depression?
What does the score indicate?
PHQ-9
5-9 mild depression
10-14 moderate depression
15-19 moderately severe depression
20-27 severe depression
What is the management for depression (based on the PHQ-9)?
- Medication is only first line if PHQ-9 16 or more, or an antidepressant is preferred by the patient.
Lifestyle modifications:
- Exercise
- Self-help
- Therapy (CBT)
- Diet
- Reduce stress
- Reduce alcohol
If depression is severe (20 or more on PHQ-9) requires urgent specialist input and management.
Admission for patients with a high risk of self-harm, suicide or self neglect.
Also admit if there is a safeguarding issue.
What are is the first line medication for depression?
What medication options are there for severe or unresponsive depression?
- SSRI (sertraline). Can also use mirtazapine, fluoxetine, paroxetine or citalopram.
- Antipsychotics (olanzapine or quetiapine).
- Lithium
- ECT
What is psychotic depression?
What treatment options are there for psychotic depression?
Involves symptoms of psychosis:
- Delusions
- Hallucinations
- Thought disorder
- Antipsychotics (olanzapine, quetiapine)
- ECT
What screening tool is used for postnatal depression?
What score is indicative of postnatal depression?
The Edinburgh scale.
10 or more suggests postnatal depression.
What is the cutoff for baby blues?
2 weeks - beyond then postnatal depression can be diagnosed.
When should a mother be admitted to the mother and baby unit?
Puerperal psychosis.
What are the features associated with ASD?
- Lack of eye contact
- Delay in smiling
- Avoiding physical contact
- Unable to read non-verbal queues.
- Difficulty establishing friendships/sharing toys.
- Delay in language development.
- Greater interest in objects, numbers and patterns
- Stereotypical repetitive movements
- Intense and deep interests.
- Fixed routine/anxiety with breaks of routine.
What is the management of ASD?
MDT approach depending on severity.
- CAHMS
- Psychologists
- Social workers
- Specially trained educators at school.
Not “cureable”
What is bipolar disorder?
Recurrent episodes of depression and mania or hypomania.
High rate of suicide
What are the features of mania?
- Abnormally elevated mood.
- Significant irritability.
- Increased energy.
- Decreased sleep.
- Grandiosity, ambitious plans, risk taking, excessive spending.
- Sexually inappropriate behaviour.
- Flight of ideas
- Pressured speech
- Psychosis
What is the difference between bipolar I and bipolar II?
BP1 - Involves at least one episode of mania.
BP2 - Involves at least 1 episode of major depression and at least one episode of hypomania.
What is the difference between mania and hypomania?
Mania - More severe than hypomania, with an extremely elevated mood and major effects on daily life.
Hypomania - Milder than mania, with still elevated mood and reduced need for sleep. Often can continue as normal with daily life.
Summary - mania is more severe than hypomania, with a greater impact on daily life.
What is the acute management for an episode of mania?
- Antipsychotics (olanzapine, quetiapine, haloperidol) is first line.
- Lithium and valproate
- Taper and stop antidepressants.
What is the acute management for an episode of depression?
- Olanzapine and fluoxetine
- Antipsychotics
- Lamotrigine
What is the long term management used for bipolar disorder?
What monitoring is required?
Lithium is the usual option.
Requires monitoring of serum lithium levels at 12 hours post-dose.
What are the alternatives to lithium when treating bipolar?
- Olanzapine and sodium valproate.
What are the potential adverse affects of lithium?
- Fine tremor
- Weight gain
- CKD
- Hypothyroidism
- Hyperparathyroidism
- Hypercalcaemia
- Nephrogenic diabetes insipidus (polyuria, polydipsia and dehydration).
What is generalised anxiety disorder?
GAD - Excessive and disproportional anxiety and worry that negatively impacts the person’s every day activities.
Symptoms should occur most days for at least 6 months.
What are the emotional and cognitive symptoms of GAD?
- Excessive worrying
- Unable to control worrying
- Restlessness
- Difficulty relaxing
- Easily tired
- Difficulty concentrating
What are the physical symptoms of GAD?
- Muscle tension
- Palpitations
- Sweating
- Tremor
- GI symptoms
- Headaches
- Disturbed sleep
What is a panic attack?
- Sudden onset of intense physical and emotional symptoms of anxiety.
- They come on quickly and then the symptoms gradually fade away.
What is phobia?
- An extreme fear of certain situations or things, causing symptoms of anxiety and panic.
What is the screening tool used to assess severity of anxiety?
How does score relate to severity?
GAD-7
7 questions:
5-9 is mild
10-14 is moderate
15-21 is severe.
What is the management for MILD anxiety (GAD-7 of 5-9?
Mild (5-9 on GAD-7) - self-help strategies and lifestyle changes:
- meditation
- healthy sleep habits
- Improve diet
- Avoid alcohol and caffiene
Moderate to severe
What is the management for moderate/severe anxiety (GAD-7 of 10-21?
What is first line medication?
What are the other medication options?
- CBT
- Medication (sertraline is first line)
Other medication options are:
- SNRI (venlafaxine)
- Pregabalin
- Propanolol (not for asthmatics)
- Benzodiazepam NOT offered unless for acute episodes of anxiety.
What is OCD?
What is an obsession?
What is a compulsion?
Struggle with obsessions and compulsions.
Obsession - unwanted and uncontrolled thoughts and intrusive images that are very difficult to ignore.
Compulsion - Repetitive actions a person feels they must do, with anxiety if they are not done. Often associated with the obsessions.
What is the cycle of OCD?
- Obsessions
- Anxiety
- Compulsion
- Temporary relief.
The obsession will then reappear, causing the cycle to continue.
What scale is used to assess the severity of OCD?
Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale
What is the management for OCD?
Mild OCD:
- Education and self-help
Moderate/severe OCD:
- CBT with exposure and response prevention (ERP)
- SSRI (sertraline)
- Clomipramine (tricyclic antidepressant)
What is ERP?
Exposure and response prevention:
- Facing the obsessive thoughts and anxiety without completing the associated compulsions.
Used in management of moderate/severe OCD.
Baby blues vs postnatal depression vs puerperal psychosis?
Baby blues - depressive symptoms in the first two weeks after giving birth.
Postnatal depression - Depressive symptoms that last over two weeks in the postnatal period.
Puerperal psychosis - Full psychotic symptoms, occurring 2-3 weeks after giving birth.
What is the treatment required for baby blues?
None - symptoms will resolve on own.
What screening tool is used for postnatal depression?
What score is suggestive of postnatal depression?
Edinburgh postnatal depression scale.
10 or more indicates postnatal depression.
What is the treatment for mild, moderate and severe postnatal depression?
Mild - Self-help, GP followup
Moderate - SSRI (sertraline), CBT.
Severe - Specialist referral, mother and baby unit.
What is the treatment for puerperal psychosis?
- Admit to mother and baby unit.
- CBT
- ECT
- Antidepressants (e.g. sertraline) and antipsychotics (e.g. olanzapine, quetiapine etc.)
What is PTSD?
What is the timeframe for diagnosis?
Ongoing distressing symptoms and impaired function as a result of traumatic experience.
Diagnosed after 4 weeks following the traumatic event. Up till 4 weeks, it is an acute stress reaction rather than PTSD.
How does PTSD present?
- Intrusive thoughts relating to the event.
- Re-experiencing (flashbacks, images, nightmares)
- Hyperarousal
- Avoidance of triggers
- Negative emotions and beliefs
- Difficulty with sleep
- Depersonalisation (feeling separated/detached)
- Derealisation (world around them doesn’t feel real)
- Emotional numbing.
What screening tool is used to diagnose PTSD?
Trauma screening questionnaire.
What is the management used for PTSD?
Tailored to the individual. Options include:
- Psychological therapy (trauma-focused CBT)
- Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR).
- Medication (SSRI, venlafaxine or antipsychotics).
Sertraline:
Drug class?
Other useful information?
SSRI (can cause GI disruption)
- Anti-anxiety too
- Less risk of heart-related side effects than other SSRI.
Citalopram:
Drug class?
Other useful information?
SSRI (can cause GI disruption)
- Can prolong QT interval (torsades de pointes).
- Least safe SSRI for those with heart disease (along with escitalopram).
Fluoxetine:
Drug class?
Other useful information?
SSRI (can cause GI disruption)
Long half life (4-7 days). First line choice in children and adolescents.
Paroxetine:
Drug class?
Other useful information?
SSRI (can cause GI disruption)
More likely to cause weight gain.
Venlafaxine:
Drug class?
Other useful information?
SNRI
Contraindicated in uncontrolled hypertension (all SNRIs)
Used when inappropriate response to other antidepressants.
Causes more discontinuation symptoms and has a higher risk of overdose suicide.
Duloxetine:
Drug class?
Other useful information?
SNRI
Can be used for neuropathic pain/stress incontinence.
Amitriptyline:
Drug class?
Other useful information?
TCA
Commonly used for neuropathic pain relief.
High association with cardiac arrhythmias - makes them extremely risky in overdose so not used for depression commonly.
Cause sedation so often taken at night. Also can cause dry mouth, constipation, urinary retention due to the anticholinergic effects.
Mirtazapine:
Drug class?
-Other useful information?
Atypical antidepressant (technically a TCA)
Causes increased appetite, weight gain and sedation. This makes it useful in the elderly, if there is evidence of poor sleep and reduced appetite.
How quickly do patients need reviewing following start of an antidepressant?
- within 2 weeks
- if between 18-25, one week due to increased suicide risk.
Within what timeframe is there normally a noticeable response to a course of antidepressants?
- What are the next steps?
- Within 2-4 weeks.
- Consider switching or upping dose.
Which antidepressant classes can be directly switched between?
Which is the exception?
SSRI –> SNRI.
Not fluoxetine as it has a longer half life.
When stopping antidepressants, what is recommended?
- A gradual stop to minimise the discontinuation symptoms.
- Should be done slowly at least over 4 weeks.
What are the typical symptoms when stopping antidepressants?
- Insomnia
- Vivid dreams
- Irritability
- Electric shock-like symptoms.
- Flu-like symptoms
How long do discontinuation symptoms typically last for when stopping antidepressants?
Resolve within 1-2 weeks.
Commence after 2-3 days of stopping treatment.