Psychiatry
Here are some resources to help with Psychiatry. The best textbook is Psychiatry at a Glance. Supplement this with PassMedicine to learn and retain the key facts. Use Geeky Medics to learn key points in a psychiatric history and the Mental State Exam (MSE). Click the links below to be directed to each resource.
This is an easy to read and very comprehensive textbook. Like all “At Glance” books, each topic is covered in 2 pages with the first page acting as a visual summary, so is ideal for both learning from scratch and also quick revision. It covers all the topics you’ll be examined on, so no need to use multiple resources. I recommend reading this throughout your Psychiatry placement and using PassMedicine psychiatry questions to test your learning.
Use Geeky Medics to learn how to take a psychiatric history and to perform a Mental State Exam (MSE). The first few pages of Psychiatry at a Glance is also a good resource for this.
I recommend making some mnemonics to remember key features; for example, to remember depression features and key point to ask in the history, I use MAE SWAG CAD (low Mood; Anhedonia; low Energy; decreased Sleep; Weight-loss; Guilt; low Concentration; decreased Activity and thoughts of Death/suicide).
