#paam

A wholeass softe s n a c c

In a coffee shop

Started off the 2nd half of our psych block with a skills day.

I had heard not great reports of the usefulness of this session, from various people who had come before me, so I wasn’t really thrilled at the idea. But honestly, while it may not be the most useful day (in regards to mainly content / exam prep) it wasn’t terrible. The middle sessions on Child and Family psych were pretty interesting and the ethics sessions were entertaining.

As part of the family therapy session I had to role play as a interrupting 4 year old boy, which basically meant that I ( a 30+ year old women) had to run around the session room, throwing pieces of paper in the air, talking to people mid-interview and (my pièce de résistance) slowly sliding off a chair in total boredom.

We also had an addition Paeds tutorial this week - as one of the psych regs in the children’s hospital offered to run a few extra things for us, which was amazingly generous. We worked through an eating disorder case, which was interesting... mainly as a few consultants have been reminding us that it might be one of our cases for our observed clinical interview. (Also for no reason whatsoever, I have a feeling that I’m going to get an adolescent for it!)

This week I started my final psych rotation which is with the consultation liaison team. Its an interesting rotation - basically its a team of psych registrars / consultants who are asked to see patients by other teams if they are concerned there is a mental health issues - so anything from a cancer patient with depression, a surgical patient with anxiety or a suicidal patient in emergency. So there is an interesting breadth of patients.

On Friday, one of the regs got me to be the lead for one of their interviews, and when we wrote up the notes together (with me writing the MSE) and then she got me present the case to the consultant. The interview went pretty well actually, although it took me a lot longer than I think the Reg would have done on her own, and the presentation went pretty well.

Half-way through the consultant stopped me and asked me if I have an interest in psych because my presentation was really good, which then caused the reg to pipe up saying that I’m apparently also a very empathic interviewer.

This lead to a brief discussion about how I should re-think about psychiatry as a potential career option...

Honestly... I still think probably not.

(3 weeks left for the year!)

Anyway, here are some things I learned in med school this week:

1. In one Australian study the prevalence of mental illness in the refugee population was ~ 50% (as measured by the K10)

2. Prazosin, a vasodilator often used in hypertension, can also be used to help stop nightmares due to PTSD

3. The three cluster of personality disorders are easily remembered as either “Weird, Wild and Wimpy” or “Mad, Bad and Sad”

Quote of the Week:

“CRP is like a pick-up line. No one is interested unless its really impressive” - Paeds Reg

‘til next week

Side entrance

Provincetown Art Association and Museum