I once had a 70 year old patient with recurrent serious depressive episodes leading to suicide attempts. She was a “professional suicider”, in that she subscribed to an organisation that clandestinely posted out kits to help people kill themselves. I
Mental Health Resources
The Internet is rife with well-intentioned mental health advice, supposed resources, and many, many pitfalls. Much of the difficulty is the reality of psychiatry, in that the lack of objective evidence regarding psychiatric illness (save treatment responses and, in some
Internship: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
A little bit of advice to those newly starting their medical careers… (Published in the Australian Medical Association Newsletter May 2015.) I had no real interest in medicine when I first went into university. This ambivalence didn’t prepare me well
The Boring Patient
The Boring Patient Some articles provide their benefit by means of tangible changes to patient care. A few others yield an improvement in quality of life for the clinician as well. Then there are those that improve quality of life
The RANZCP Psychotherapy Case – how to choose a case
For psychiatry registrars planning for their long term psychotherapy case – this is a short primer into the world of psychotherapy, as well as some advice regarding choosing your case. Beware the enthusiastic referrer! http://blog.psychscene.com/supercharge-your-psychotherapy-case-training/
Psychotherapy at the APA
(This article is a review of psychotherapy-related workshops and lectures at the American Psychiatric Association’s May 2014 conference. It involves content originally published at mindcafe) The APA has a reputation for often being too biologically focused; however the psychotherapies were
Personality Disorders in Geriatric Inpatients – A Prevalence Study
How common are personality disorders in the elderly? I looked at a “captive” audience, the general medical inpatient, in order to try to estimate this. Community studies generally hover around the 10 to 15% mark, which I used to think
Flight of Ideas – Death of a Definition
The term “flight of ideas” is commonly known, but do you know what it actually means? Or where it comes from? The disturbing answer to both of these questions explains why there are at least six interpretations out there as
Recommended Textbook
Gabbard’s Long Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy is a slim yet well-written volume regarding key concepts of psychodynamic practice, and provides an excellent base from which to build your psychotherapeutic knowledge.