Psychiatry Flashcards
What are the 5P’s of formulation?
- Presenting problem
- Predisposing factors ie genetics
- Precipitating factors ie a change of job
- Perpetuating factors ie not liking the new job
- Protective factors ie pets
What should a psychiatric assessment involve?
- PC
- HPC
- Past psychiatric hx
- Medications
- Family hx
- Personal hx
- Social hx
- Use of alcohol and illicit substances
- Forensic hx
- Pre-morbid personality
- Mental state examination
- Physical examination
- Risk assessment
What should the personal history involve?
- Early development
- Childhood behaviour
- Education including bullying
- Employment
- Relationships and psychosocial
What should the forensic history include?
- Convictions
- Consequences
- Other offending behaviours or crimes
- Remorse
What should be explored in a patient’s pre-morbid personality?
- Patient’s views of pre-morbid personality
- Informant’s view
- Hobbies/interests
- Predominant mood
- Character
- Relationships
- Habits
What is included in the mental state examination?
ASEPTIC
- Appearance/behaviour - Clothes, weight, eye contact, abnormal movements, guarded/suspicious psychomotor retardation
- Speech - volume, rate and form
- Emotions (MOOD) - subjective and objective view
- Perceptions - hallucinations and delusions
- Thoughts - content, suicidal thoughts, delusional beliefs vs ideas
- Insight - finding out what the patient understands about their health
- Cognition - time and place orientation, language construction
What does the risk assessment include?
- Harm to others
- Harm to self
- Accidental harm to self - ie in dementia pt leaving hob on
- Vulnerability to exploitation
- Self-neglect
Illusions:
Misperceptions of real external stimuli. Can be normal ie when falling asleep
Hallucinations and modalities:
Perceptions occurring in the absence of an external stimulus
Visual, auditory, tactile, somatic, olfactory gustatory
Hypnopompic vs hypnogogic
Hypnopompic: hallucinations when waking up
Hypnogogic: hallucinations when going to sleep
Both are normal
Reflex hallucination:
A stimulus in one modality causes a hallucination in another ie ‘when you write, i feel your pen pressing on my heart’
Extracampine hallucination:
Experiencing something impossible ie hearing someone talking from Australia
Auditory hallucinations 2nd vs 3rd person
2nd: ‘you are a bad person’
3rd: running commentary, talking about the pt between themselves
Overvalued idea:
A false or exaggerated belief which is illogical, but with less rigidity as a delusion. Patient’s mind can be changed with reasoning
Delusion:
A false, unshakable idea or belief which is out keeping with the pt’s educational, cultural and social background
-absolute certainty and extraordinary conviction held about belief
Persecutory delusion
The belief that an outside agency wants to cause the pt harm ie the police want to kill the pt
Grandiose delusion
Inflated importance or self esteem ie thinking they have super powers or have found the cure for cancer
Self-referential delusion
Believing that messages are being given to them through unrelated things ie hearing a song on the radio means that the world is going to turn against the patient
Misidentification types:
Capgras: a close relative has been replaced by an identical imposter
Fregoli: various people met are the same person in disguise
Intermetamorphosis: people in the environment swap identities with each other but keep the same appearace
Subjective doubles: a doppelganger is carrying out independent actions elsewhere
Nihilistic delusion
the belief that they’re dead/parts of their body are dead. sometimes a delusion about the body ie thinking they have no legs
Hypochondriacal delusions
illness, somatisation (feelings of pain, GI complaints)
Delusional guilt
Feeling responsible for harm or things not caused by them ie a mass shooting or natural disaster
Delusional perception
A normal event/stimulus/perception which results in a delusional belief ie a traffic light turning red means that the MI5 is following the pt
Thought insertion:
Certain thoughts are not pt’s own and they are inserted into pt’s mind
Thought withdrawal:
Belief that thoughts have been stolen from ones mind by an entity
Thought broadcast:
ones thoughts are being broadcast out loud so they can be perceived by others
Thought echo:
a form of auditory hallucination in which the pt hears thoughts spoken aloud
Thought block:
sudden interruption in the train of thought, leaving a complete blank
Concrete thinking:
lack of abstract thinking, everything is take literally ie ‘i’ve got a frog in my throat’
Loosening of association:
A lack of logical association between succeeding thoughts. It’s impossible to follow patients train of thought
Circumstantiality:
Irrelevant wandering in the conversation, talking around the houses
Perseveration:
Repetition of a word, theme or action beyond that point at which it was relevant and appropriate
Confabulation:
giving a false account to fill a gap in memory
Somatic passivity:
a delusional belief that one is a passive recipient of bodily sensations from an external agency
Made act/feeling/drive
MADE: the experience/process is done by the pt, but the pt has been made to
ACT: action
FEELING: feeling
DRIVE: impulse
Catatonia
a state of excited or inhibited motor activity in the absence of a mood disorder or
neurological disease. Increased muscle tone.
Akinetic autism or stupor
Complete loss of activity with no response to stimuli
Psychomotor retardation
Slowing of thoughts and movements.
Mainly seen in depressive episodes
Flight of ideas:
rapid skipping from one thought to distantly related ideas.
relation can be rhyming
Pressure of speech:
Rapid rate of delivery of speech, associations may be unusual. Can’t interrupt pt. Wanders off the point of the original conversation
Anhadonia:
defined as the inability to experience pleasure from activities usually found enjoyable
Apathy:
loss of emotional engagement and energy levels
Incongruity of affect:
emotional responses that seem grossly out of tune with the situation/subject being discussed ie smiling about your dog dying
Blunting of affect:
an objective absence of normal emotional response without evidence of depression of psychomotor retardation
Conversion
psychological conflict transposed into somatic symptoms ie blindness
Belle indifference:
a lack of concern about a disability/symptom when psychological conflict has caused somatic symptoms ie blindness
Depersonalisation:
a feeling of some change in the self association with a sense of detachment from one’s own body. Pt feels like an apathetic spectator of his own activities
Derealisation:
a sense of one’s surroundings is lacking reality - often appearing grey, dull, lifeless
Dissociation
an experience where a person may feel disconnected from themselves/their surroundings
Mannerism:
a bizarre elaboration of normal activities ie twirling hair when speaking to someone. not abnormal if the only symptom
Obsession:
a recurrent persistent thought, image, impulse that enters consciousness unbidden, is recognised as being ones own and often remains despite efforts to resist
Compulsion
a repetitive apparently purposeful behaviour performed in a stereotyped way accompanied by a subjective sense that it must be carried out despite recognition of its senselessness and often resistance by the pt
Akathisia:
motor restlessness, anxiety and inability to relax
caused by SSRIs and anti-psychotics
causes some patients to end their life as so intolerable
Gender dysphoria
Persistent aversion toward some or all of those physcial characteristics or social roles that connote one’s own biological sex
Gender identity:
a person’s inner conviction of being male or female
Transvestism:
sexual pleasure derived from dressing/masquerading in clothing of opposite sex, with strong wish to appear as a member of opposite sex
Phobia
an irrational intense and persistent fear and repulsion towards certain situations, objects activity or people. Can limit patients autonomy
Transference
the redirection to a substitute of emotions that were originally felt in childhood
ie if abused by father with a beard the pt would be hostile to a therapist with a beard
Psychological treatments available for psychiatric problems
Psychotherapy: identifying patterns in behaviour
Psychoanalytic: helps the person to become more aware of the unconscious process which are giving rise to symptoms or to difficult repeating patterns
CBT: focuses on here and now and problems in daily life
Counselling: help with recent difficult events
Interpersonal therapy: helps pt understand how problems are connected to their relationships
Dialectic behavioural therapy: balancing acceptance and change
Family and marital therapy
Section 2:
Used for assessment
28 days
2 drs and 1 amhp
pt suffering from mental health disorder of a nature/degree that warrants detention in hospital for assessment and the pt ought to be detained for their own health and safety/protection of others
Section 3:
Used for treatment
6 months
2 drs and 1 amhp
pt suffering from mental health disorder of a nature/degree that warrants detention in hospital for treatment and the pt ought to be detained for their own health and safety/protection of others and appropriate treatment must be available
Section 4
Emergency order
72 hours
1 dr and 1 amhp
pt suffering from mental health disorder of a nature/degree that warrants detention in hospital for assessment and the pt ought to be detained for their own health and safety/protection of others and there isn’t enough time for 2nd dr to attend
Section 5(4)
For a patient already admitted but wanting to leave
6 hours
Nurse’s holding power until dr can attend
can not be treated
Section 5(2)
For a patient already admitted but wanting to leave
72 hours
Dr’s holding power until section 2/3 carried out
can not be treated
Section 135/136
Police
S136 - person suspected of having mental disorder in public space
S135 - court order to access pts home and remove them to a place of safety
Typical antipsychotics:
Haloperidol
Chlorpromazine
Prochlorperazine
Pipothiazine
Typical antipsychotics side effects:
Extra-pyramidal side effects:
- Akasthisia - inner restlessness
- Acute dystonic reaction
- Parkinsonism
- Tardive dyskinesia
Definition of schizophrenia
A syndrome characterised by disturbances of thinking, perception, affect and behaviour.
There is preserved consciousness and cognitive skills.
What are the 2 peak incidences of onset of schizophrenia?
Young men and middle aged women
What causes schizophrenia?
Genetic, environmental and social factors