My experience in my fourth year psychiatry placement
contradicted the stereotypes of the specialty.
I was attached to a mental health
team caring for patients from a quarter of the general practices in
Dundee. I thoroughly enjoyed my placement. I have always found
mental illness fascinating, but a lot of what I had heard about
psychiatry was negative.
One patient that I saw in clinic
particularly stands out in my memory. It was a lady who suffered
from bipolar affective disorder. When she came to clinic she was
well; she came across as a calm and pleasant person, very tidy and
fashionable. I flicked through her notes and read the mental state
examination from her last admission to hospital a few months
previously. The contrast between the description of her behaviour
then and now was stark: I wouldn’t have thought it could be the
same person sat in front of me. When she was admitted she had been
in a manic phase, chaotically dressed, wildly hyperactive,
extremely grandiose and experiencing hallucinations. She was very
unwell but with treatment she got better - back to ‘normal’. It was
the same on the wards: I could see the change in some people even
though I was only there for a short period of time – so much for
what I’d heard people say about ‘psychiatric patients never getting
better’.
Jude Harrison, medical student, Dundee
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Page last updated on 16 May 2010 by E
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