Category Archives: disorders

Hearing voices

The experience of hearing voices is potentially one of the most distressing that patients presenting to psychiatrists have. Of course hearing a voice does not equate to illness as most, if not all, people will hear a voice at least … Continue reading

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Stigma rears its ugly head

So yet again people with mental illness find themselves subject to stigma. On Monday 7 October 2013 The Sun newspaper alleged in a full page headline that over a ten year period 1,200 people had been killed by “mental patients”. … Continue reading

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You are now ill…

You may well have seen much in the press about DSM-5, which was released last week. A previous post highlighted concerns voiced by Allen Frances about the path that DSM-5 was taking. Frances was the chair of the task force that … Continue reading

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Do No Harm: Why do some people want to cut off a perfectly healthy limb?

Body dysmorphohobic disorder ( ICD 10 F45.2 ) can occur as a disorder on its own or as a symptom of other disorders e.g. depression. It’s defined as: A type of mental illness, a somatoform disorder, wherein the affected person … Continue reading

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Watching The Lights Go Out: a blog about Alzheimer’s

A Twitter feed I follow (@brainpicker) drew my attention to a blog written by a doctor with Alzheimer’s. I could try and explain what it’s about but the easiest and most eloquent way to do so is actually to quote the blog … Continue reading

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An artist’s representation of their mental illness

Performance artist Bobby Baker kept a diary of drawings charting her struggles and eventual recovery from cancer and depression. The Guardian has a slideshow, with voiceover by Bobby Baker herself, showing some of the drawings. It’s well worth a look.

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Delirium: Essential Facts – a slideshow

MBBS Course Director for Mental Health Andrew Teodorczuk has produced a slideshow with voice over covering some of the essential data relating tot he condition delirium. It is available on Vimeo and can be found below:

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Video of a challenging interview

A few years back colleagues at Newcastle General Hospital put together some teaching materials around interview skills. This video shows an interview of a man with depression who, due to his level of irritability, is somewhat difficult to engage with … Continue reading

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New video from SSC student

During his SSC to develop a psychiatry teaching video, fourth year medical student John Hayton, chose to look at the topic of deliberate self harm. The result is a video entitled, “I can’t stop thinking about it…” In the film, … Continue reading

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DSH – Guest post by SSC student John Hayton

There is increasing interest in psychiatry, or at least it is more visible, amongst the student body with an active student society and many students requesting Student Selected Components (SSC) in psychiatry. This post is by one such student. John … Continue reading

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