MED4008

Psychological medicine

Professor D O'Connor

5 hours (lectures and seminars) in introductory week as well as a 3-week hospital attachment (term three)

Objectives On completion of this subject students will have a sound understanding of the clinical features associated with serious mental illness and be able to elicit these using an appropriate psychiatric history and mental state examination; problem formulation and differential diagnosis of mental illness; medical, psychological and social aspects of management in relation to mental illness (including commonly used drugs) and the support infrastructure available for management of these patients in the community; specific communication skills required in dealing with patients with mental illness and with seriously disturbed behaviour in particular; adverse personal responses to patients with mental illness and how these are most effectively handled; the relevant aspects of the current Mental Health Act.

Synopsis Seminar teaching (integrative teaching program, terms one and two) in relation to psychiatric illness is extended with further seminars in the introductory week of term three. All students subsequently spend three weeks attached to a clinical unit in a selected psychiatric hospital, with involvement in seminars, patient admission and clerking, bedside clinical tutorials and direct observation of clinicians at work. At each hospital, a coordinator will be responsible for teaching content and pastoral care of students, including debriefing when this is required.

Assessment Case presentation: 5% (of final mark)

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