Psychiatry Flashcards
(159 cards)
What is the crisis resolution team?
Managed severely unwell/ suicidal psychiatric patients in the community (psychiatric emergencies)
Aim: short term interventions (<6wks) with people at home, to prevent admission to hospital
What is the outreach team?
Provides intensive support and treatment in the community for chronically unwell psychiatric patients and those who have a history of disengagement from mainstream psychiatric services
Patients are usually high risk of causing harm to themselves or others
Community nurses can visit several times a week over a longer period of time than crisis resolution team
Community mental health team (CMHT)
MDT: psychiatrists, community psychiatric nurses, occupational therapists, psychologists, social workers and secretaries
CPNs may visit the patients in their homes every two weeks and then patients are managed in outpatient clinics
What is a care programme approach? (CPA)
A system of care which aims to meet a patients psychiatric and social needs once they are back in the community after significant contact with psychiatric services (eg. inpatient)
CMHT + medical + social services work together
These patients often have complex needs, of require multiple services which requires coordination
Components of psychiatric history taking
- Introduce and identify patient
- Reason for referral
- Presenting complaint
- ICE
- Past psychiatric history
- Past medical history
- Drug history
- Family history
- Personal history
- Social history
- Premorbid personality (what they were like before, maybe get collateral Hx)
What to discuss when asking about ‘personal history’ during a psychiatric history taking
Antenatal and birth complications Developmental milestones Childhood illness/psych illness Family dynamics Home atmosphere Childhood abuse
Did they attend and enjoy school
Were they bullied
Did they finish school
Did they get qualifications
Chronological list of jobs
Duration of work
Redundancy or personal choice
Work environment
Sexual orientation
Chronological account of major relationships
Current relationship
Children
Forensic history
Women: menstrual patterns, previous miscarriages, still births, terminations
What to discuss when asking about ‘social history’ in psych history taking
Accommodation Social support Financial circumstances Hobbies and leisure activities Alcohol and substance misuse
Components of a mental state examination
ASEPTIC:
Appearance and behaviour: clothing, accessories, personal hygiene, eye contact, facial expression, body language, movements, level of arousal, ability to build rapport, disinhibition
Speech: rate, rhythm, vol, content, quantity, tone, dysarthria
Emotion (mood and affect): subjective mood (patients own words), objective mood (euthymic, elated, depressed), affect (blunted, flat, restricted, appropraite, inappropriate, labile, inconguous). Affect is reactive if no abnormality.
Perception: hallucinations
Thoughts: content (delusions, obsessional thoughts, overvalued ideas), form (loosening of associations, circumstantiality, neologism, perseveration), flow (speed of thinking), thoughts of suicide and self harm
Insight: the extent to which the patient understands the nature of their problem
Cognition: consciousness, orientation, attention, concentration, memory
Delusions
- definition
- types of delusions
Definition: fixed false beliefs, which are firmly held despite evidence to the contrary and go against the individuals normal social and cultural belief system
- Grandiose: patient has special powers, is talented, wealthy and important, may be chosen by god
- Persecutory: other people are conspiring against them in order to inflict harm
- Reference: random events/objects/behaviours of other have a special significance on them
- Guilt
- Hypochondrial
- Nihilistic: they are worthless or dying. In severe cases (Cotards syndrome) they claim that everything is non-existent including themselves
- Infestation: one is infested by small organisms
- Folie à deux: a syndrome in which a delusional belief is shared between two people
- Erotomania (De Clérambaults syndrome): someone is inlove with them
- Othello syndrome (morbid jealousy): a patients spouse/partner is being unfaithful without their being proof
- Capgras syndrome: a familiar person or place has been replaced with an exact duplicate
Types of formal thought disorder
- Loosening of association: usually in schizophrenia. three types:
1. Derailment of thought (knights move thinking): thoughts are unrelated or only remotely related
2. Tangential thinking: patient diverts from original train of thought and never returns to it
3. Word salad: speech that is reduced to a senseless repetition of sounds and phrases - Circumstantiality: thinking proceeds slowly with many unnecessary details and digressions before returning to the original point
- Neologisms: words/phrases devised by the patient or a new meaning to an already known word
- Perseveration: uncontrollable and inappropriate repetition of a particular word/ phrase/ gesture
Different types of abnormalities seen in flow of thinking
Acceleration:
- Pressure thought
- Flight of ideas (difficult to understand, switches quickly from one loosely connected idea to another)
Retardation: slow speed of thinking
Thought blocking: sudden cessation of flow of thoughts. The previous idea may the be taken up again or replaced by another thought
Schneiders first rank symptoms
Symptoms, which if 1+ present, suggests diagnosis of schizophrenia:
Delusional perception
Third person auditory hallucinations
Thought interference
Passivity phenomenon
Thought interference
Thought insertion: the thoughts inside their mind do not belong to them and have been put there by an external agent
Thought withdrawal: own thoughts are being taken away from them
Thought broadcast: their thoughts are being broadcasted/ heard out loud
Definition of a hallucination
Types of hallucinations
A perception in the absence of an external stimulus
May be visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory or somatic. Auditory most common.
Auditory may be second person (voice directly addressing the patient), third person (voices talking amongst themselves, or about the patient), running commentary (voice giving account of what the patient is doing)
Illusion vs. hallucination
Hallucination is a perception in the absence of an external stimulus
Illusion is a false mental image produced by misinterpretation of an external stimulus
Definition of depressive disorder
Affective mood disorder characterised by a persistent low mood, loss of pleasure and/or lack of energy accompanied by emotional, cognitive and biological symptoms
Biopsychosocial model for predisposing, precipitating and perpetutating factors causing depressive disorder
Predisposing:
- BIO: female, postnatal period, genetics, reduced serotonin, reduced NA, reduced dopamine, increased endocrine activity, physical co-morbidities, past history of depression
- PSYCHO: personality type, failure of effective stress control, poor coping strategies, other mental health comorbidities
- SOCIAL: stress, lack of social support
Precipitating:
- BIO: poor compliance with medication, corticosteroids
- PSYCHO: acute stressful life events
- SOCIAL: unemployment, poverty, divorce
Perpetuating:
- BIO: chronic health problems
- PSYCHO: poor insight, negative thoughts about self or world, and the future
- SOCIAL: alcohol and substance misuse, poor social support, reduced social status
Risk factors of depressive illness
FF ΑA PP SS Female Family history Alcohol Adverse events Past depression Physical comorbidities Social support lacking Socioeconomic status (low)
Core symptoms of depressive disorder
Cognitive symptoms of depressive disorder
Biological symptoms of depressive disorder
Psychotic symptoms of depressive disorder
CORE: anhedonia, low mood, lack of energy
COGNITIVE: lack of concentration, negative thoughts (self, world, future), excessive guilt, suicidal ideation
BIOLOGICAL: diurnal variation in mood (worst in the morning), early morning awakening, loss of libido, psychomotor retardation, weight loss and appetite loss
PSYCHOTIC: hallucinations, delusions
ICD-10 classification of depression
Mild: 2 core symptoms + 2 other symptoms
Moderate: 2 core symptoms + 3/4 other symptoms
Severe: 3 core symptoms + 4 or more other symptoms
Severe depression with psychosis: 3 core symptoms + 4 or more other symptoms + psychosis
Differential diagnoses for depressive disorder
Other mood disorders: bipolar affective disorder, other depressive disorders (seasonal, recurrent, cyclothymia, postnatal, baby blues, etc)
Secondary to physical condition: (eg. hypothyroidism)
Secondary to psychoactive substance abuse
Secondary to psychiatric disorders: psychotic disorders, anxiety disorders, adjustment disorder, personality disorder, eating disorder, dementia
Normal bereavement
Investigations for depressive disorder
Used to exclude organic cause.
Diagnostic questionnaires: PHQ-9, HADS, etc
Bloods: FBC (anaemia), TFTs (hypothyroidism), U+E, LFT, calcium, glucose
Imaging: MRI or CT head if ?space occupying lesion
Management of depressive disorder
Mild-Moderate:
- Watchful waiting for 2 weeks
- Antidepressants (not first line for mild depression unless: long duration, past history of mod/severe depression, other complications of physical health)
- Self help programmes
- CBT
- Social support groups
- Physical activity programme
- Psychotherapies
Moderate-Severe:
- Suicide risk assessment
- Psychiatry referral if: high suicidal risk, severe depression, recurrent depression, or unresponsive to initial therapy
- MHA if necessary
- Antidepressants (SSRIs first line) for at least 6 months after resolution of symptoms
- Adjuvants (lithium, antipsychotics)
- Psychotherapy (CBT, interpersonal therapy)
- Social support
- ECT
Definition of bipolar affective disorder
Chronic episodic mood disorder, characterised by at least one episode of mania or hypomania and a further episode of mania or depression