So what kind of patients did I meet there, well basically patients with chronic conditions, meaning more than 6 months or milder presentation of psychiatry conditions.. Amongst which are:
Depression was the most common I saw.. either as major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder (aka mood disorders). Most cases where brought in after an unsuccessful suicide attempt or in the case of bipolar after a manic episode. quite sad stories but was good to see how therapy was helping them get back to their normal life.
Delusional disorders (a fixed belief that is either false, fanciful, or derived from deception) was the most fascinating to me. What fascinates the most is that this people have no insight to their problem, you cannot convince them that what you believe isn't true. Another thing that fascinates me is how hard is it for you as a doctor to tell this are delusions, what if what the patient is telling you is true? because there were cases where it wasn't possible to obtain hetero anamnesis (information from someone else).
here are some types of delusional disorder,
- Erotomanic Type (erotomania): delusion that another person is in love with the individual.
- Grandiose Type: delusion of inflated worth, power, knowledge, identity, or special relationship to a famous person.
- Jealous Type: delusion that the individuals sexual partner is unfaithful.
- Persecutory Type: delusion that the person (or someone to whom the person is close) is being malevolently treated in some way.
- Somatic Type: delusions that the person has some physical defect or general medical condition.
Schizophrenia (not all cases) the most interesting for me.. spoke about this in previous post.
Personality disorders.. basically a behavior that deviates from your normal expected behavior. one interesting one is borderline personality disorder, not quite there but almost there. this is between psychosis and neurosis. individuals are emotionally unstable
Alcohol Withdrawal or generally withdrawal from any substance of abuse (crack, coke, marijuana etc). Who knew how hard it is is to quit an addiction? you actually need to be admitted to a hospital facility because you could die from withdrawal symptoms, or in most cases relapse.. So please drink responsibly and stay away from drugs!!
and lots more can't mention/remember all.. One thing I kept asking myself, which am sure is the same for everyone is, doesn't everyone have some kind of psychiatry condition? because if there is one thing I know is that I have diagnosed myself with a lot of psychiatry condition.. I mean almost every one has some sort of personality changes or mood changes, or delusions at some point. (for example there are time I am walking in the night and I see someone and think they want to harm me..lol..). So what brings you to the Psychiatrist? (cause obviously not everyone out there is gonna go to the psychiatrist when u or someone notices a change in your normal behavior/personality). Well just when this 'change' interferes severely with your daily life.
Love
11 comments:
I got re-educated reading this..
Nice post.
Take care
I am also fascinated by the psychology of human behavior, it's unfortunate the extreme ones that require psychiatric treatment.
Nice post.
thanks a lot guys for the support. u keep me blogging :-)
well it's a third world country. there would be a language barrier as far as patients are concerned, but the teaching is great. hotspot for terrorist attacks nowadays though, lots of inner turmoil in the country.
well it's a third world country. there would be a language barrier as far as patients are concerned, but the teaching is great. hotspot for terrorist attacks nowadays though, lots of inner turmoil in the country.
I occasionally join a radio program in Naij called Talk Nigeria, and one of our shows a psychiatrist from the federal psychiatric clinic in Yaba joined us. He confirmed that there is a lot more mental health problems in Nigeria than we wish to admit to, and he also said what you just did - that most people have some psychiatric condition. He mentioned for ex having to check that the door is locked more than once could be a minor thing but nonetheless a psychiatric thing...
Well, this is a problem that I had, but since he said that I've started to let go of it hehe.
It does have to do with the fact that I once had burglars break in...I hope anyway ;)
@Pixie, its great they r teaching u well.
@Minna, so true a lot of mental health problems in Nigeria, and poor people they will keep saying they are possessed, and take to to church or even worst keep beating them up.
The condition the psychiatrist spoke about is what is know as an OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). they keep repeating the same thing over and over again, like they will lock d door seven times each time they go out. If you are able to let go of yours then I doubt it is an OCD.
Man, really want to know how can you be that smart, lol...great read, thanks.
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