PSYCHIATRY

PSYCHIATRY

“Psychiatry is a strange field because unlike any other field of medicine, you never really finish. Your greatest instrument is you, yourself, and the work of self-understanding is endless. I’m still learning.

-Irvin Yalom

                My last rotation as a clinical clerk was psychiatry. During pre-duty in psychiatry, you will duty at Cavite Center for Mental Health wherein you will interview different patients in OPD in the morning. The OPD census where usually 100 patients per day with different kind of cases like schizophrenia, mood disorders and personality disorders. In the afternoon, you will be in charge in doing rounds in the 5 wards of the hospital and assess every referrals that they have. Usual referrals were medical conditions like fever, cough and colds, scabies and other contagious diseases.

                During duty, you were in DLSUMC and you were in charge in all psychiatric admitted patients. You were also in charge of the OPD and ER for psych patients. We usually do mental status exam on admitted patients. During our duty, we had a case of a 33 years old female who drank bleach and alcohol after her break-up with her boyfriend. She was diagnosed with adjustment disorder and was subsequently admitted. We didn’t give any psychiatric medication to her but we always give her psychoeducation and coping mechanism for her condition.

                We also had only one patient in OPD, it was a case of 26 years old female who had 3 months history persecutory delusions saying that other people will come to hurt her. She was diagnosed with schizophreniform due to 3 months’ time span and presence of delusions. She was given atypical antipsychotic. Psychiatry is a good rotation and I learned a lot during our rotation especially in CCMH since you have a lot of patients. Also, you have sufficient time to study every conditions that you will encounter.