Psychiatric illness in physicians.

Psychiatric illness and behavioural problems among physicians are reviewed in this paper. Some studies suggest that the medical profession has a high rate of alcoholism, drug abuse and marital discord. As well, physicians appear to commit suicide and to seek admission to psychiatric institutions more frequently than comparable populations. Considered as etiologic factors in psychiatric illness among physicians are the role strain inherent in the profession and the personality development of individual practitioners prior to their entering medical school. The review concludes with suggestions for an improved approach to treatment and prevention.     

Understanding the expanding role of primary care physicians (PCPs) to primary psychiatric care physicians (PPCPs): enhancing the assessment and treatment of psychiatric conditions

Aim In the current healthcare system primary care physicians (PCPs) have, in effect, become the primary psychiatric care physicians (PPCPs) for many of their patients. Being the PPCP in an already busy and stressful medical industry presents additional time management and treatment challenges to successfully manage patients' medical and psychiatric needs. The aim of the study was to ascertain PCPs' psychiatric assessment and treatment practices and to determine the extent to which PCPs have a need for using a structured psychiatric assessment tool.Method We sent 300 PCPs a survey to examine their psychiatric assessment and treatment practices. A one-page questionnaire was used to inquire about PCPs' psychiatric care practice habits including types of conditions treated, psychiatric medications prescribed, assessment methods used, interest in using a structured assessment tool and referral sources used. Sixty-eight usable surveys (23%) were returned.Results PCPs identify approximately one-third of their patients as mental health patients. They are treating a wide range of psychiatric conditions and prescribing a variety of psychiatric medications. The vast majority are using traditional clinical interviewing as their primary method of psychiatric assessment. However, the majority were willing to use a structured psychiatric assessment tool.Conclusion PCPs are serving a useful role in providing psychiatric treatment to many of their patients. Using a more structured psychiatric assessment method in practice could ultimately strengthen the assessment and treatment of psychiatric conditions in primary care settings.     

Psychiatric illness in the medical profession: incidence in relation to sex and field of practice.

The overall incidence of psychiatric illness among the physicians of British Columbia during 1970-74 was 1.27% per year. The overall suicide rate was more than 36.5/100 000. Incidence was not dependent on sex or age. The two specialties with the highest incidence--ophthalmology and psychiatry--had previously been demonstrated to have significantly high rates of suicide. The highest incidence was among psychiatric residents; in other resident groups collectively the incidence was at the expected rate. Greater severity of illness and poorer prognosis was found in family physicians compared with specialists, although the incidence was the same in the two groups.     

ASTHMA ALTERNATING WITH PSYCHIATRIC SYMPTOMATOLOGY

A group of cases and review of the literature is presented documenting the interesting clinical phenomenon of an inverse temporal relationship between asthmatic symptoms and clinical psychiatric symptoms in some patients. It is suggested that physicians treating asthmatic patients should be prepared to handle potential psychiatric complications that may be concomitants of the successful medical management of patients with asthma.     

Psychiatric consultation in the nursing home. An inquiry among Amsterdam nursing home physicians

Psychiatric disorders are common among nursing home residents. However, little is known about psychiatric consultation in Dutch nursing homes. As an exploration of the topic, Amsterdam-based nursing home physicians were asked to rate a number of aspects of psychiatric consultation as performed in their nursing home. Striking differences are reported between 14 participating nursing homes with regard to the intensity of psychiatric consultation and the number of consultation requests, which seems low compared with the perceived psychiatric problems. Somatically ill and psychogeriatric residents are estimated to generate an equal number of consultation requests. Psychiatric consultation appears to be characterized by diagnostic clarification, medication recommendations and behavioral management advice whereas staff-directed activities are scarce. Physicians report shortcomings in psychiatric skills among care staff. Research is necessary concerning the psychiatric care delivered to nursing home residents, as well as with regard to the optimal model for psychiatric consultation services. Integration of psychiatric care in nursing homes with mental health care services appears to be desirable.     

The Impact of Legal Coercion on the Therapeutic Relationship in Adult Schizophrenia Patients

The quality of the therapeutic relationship between psychiatric patients and their attending physicians plays a key role in treatment success. We hypothesize that mandatory treatment is negatively associated with the quality of the therapeutic relationship. In a cross-sectional study design, data on psychopathological symptom load (as captured with the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale) and on the quality of the therapeutic relationship (as measured with the Scale to Assess the Therapeutic Relationship) were collected from 113 adult male psychiatric patients and 35 attending physicians. Patients belonged to one of three groups: self-referred or involuntarily admitted patients from general psychiatry wards or patients from medium secure forensic psychiatric units. On average, self-referred patients rated the quality of the therapeutic relationship significantly more positive than did involuntarily admitted patients in general psychiatry wards. Forensic psychiatric patients, on average, gave an intermediate rating of the quality of the therapeutic relationship. There was no association between patients’ ratings and physicians’ ratings of the quality of the therapeutic relationship. Patients’ ratings of the quality of the therapeutic relationship were inversely related to symptom severity in general and hostility in particular. Ratings of the quality of the therapeutic relationship are not associated with patients’ legal status but rather with patients’ symptoms of hostility.     

Why psychiatric conditions are special: an evolutionary and cross-cultural perspective

In non-Western and premodern societies, approaches to sickness involved moral considerations laden with existential and spiritual implications. Healers and physicians had access to this aspect of their patient's lives, were expected to use it constructively, and often did so. The contemporary biomedical theory of disease no longer assigns to illness such metaphysical connotations. While general physicians are permitted - perhaps even advised - to avoid involvement in morally laden dialogues tied to illness and the self, such dilemmas are more prominent and qualitatively different in psychiatry, as psychiatric conditions often entail changes in self-conception, psychological disaffection, unacceptable behavior, and untoward personal reactions to social circumstances. Manifestations of psychiatric conditions can overwhelm an individual's control in areas of cognition, emotion, autonomy, social responsibility, behavior, and body functions - exactly those matters that "modern" individualistic minds are supposed to master. Consequently, psychiatric conditions challenge basic presuppositions of the modern, secular credo about personhood, disease, and behavior. They comprise a species of human problems ontologically distinct from the conditions handled by other medical disciplines.     

Psychiatric assessment of patients with “20th-century disease” (“total allergy syndrome”)

“Twentieth-century disease”, or “total allergy syndrome”, is a condition attributed to hypersensitivity to the environment that may sometimes be seen as so serious that the patient is incapable of living in the modern world. Although the popular media frequently carry stories about it, there is little scientific literature. It is diagnosed by clinical ecologists, who maintain, among other theories, that susceptible individuals experience an overload in assaults by artificial materials in the environment. The patients usually have multiple ill defined symptoms for which no organic cause can be found, but they vigorously resist psychiatric referral, as they attribute their symptoms to allergy. A group of 18 patients who were purportedly suffering from 20th-century disease were referred to a university psychiatric consultation liaison service. They virtually all had a long history of visits to physicians, and their symptoms were characteristic of several well known psychiatric disorders. The case histories and management of three of them are presented. Although this group of patients may have been atypical in that they had more severe psychologic symptoms, the experience indicates that a psychiatric diagnosis ought to be considered. The symptoms of 20th-century disease have much in common with other conditions known to physicians for centuries.     

THE PRACTICING PHYSICIAN AND MENTAL HEALTH

Neuropsychiatric disabilities are the number one problem in medicine. More specialists are needed in the field of neuropsychiatry. Better psychiatric orientation of nonpsychiatric physicians is needed and there must be infinitely more research into psychiatric problems. We need more adequately equipped and staffed hospitals, both private and public, to care for the problem, and an alerted public as well as a sympathetic, understanding medical profession.     

Neurasthenia as nosological dilemma

While researching concepts of neurasthenia as described by patients and physicians of various backgrounds, it was found that there is a great discrepancy between the two groups. In this study, questionnaires were administered to 70 psychiatric patients, 6 Chinese medicine men, 44 general physicians and 35 neuropsychiatrists, to inquire into the reasons for positive or negative attitudes toward neurasthenia. Half of the clinical patients believed that they were suffering from neurasthenia. Neurasthenia is a predominate term used for various types of distress arising mainly from psychiatric diseases. Chinese medicine men are aware that this term is a medical diagnosis introduced from the West. Through experience they regard neurasthenia as a kind of deficit of nerve. Apparently, the concept of neurasthenia has been integrated into the Chinese medical system, a fact substantiated by its longstanding, nosological use by the public.Younger generation physicians within both general and neuropsychiatric disciplines on the whole reject neurasthenia as a diagnostic term. However, one-third of neuropsychiatrists and 40% of general physicians use this term in their practice in order to improve the treatment of and to establish good communication and rapport with the patients whom they treat. Most of them, however, do not use the term in their formal diagnosis. The concept of the illness, neurasthenia, is historically rooted and today presents a nosological dilemma. It will eventually be transformed conceptually and disappear from the public mind.     

Psychiatry in General Practice

Psychiatrists should include the family doctor in their plans for future psychiatric services. The general practitioner now treats most of the patients who seek help for psychiatric disorder and he could not give up his psychiatric practice even if he wanted to. Furthermore, there are not now nor will there ever be enough psychiatrists to take over all patients with mental ills. Most emotionally disturbed patients can be better handled by their family physicians than by a specialist.To provide the best care for emotionally disturbed people the communication between family doctors and psychiatrists must be improved. The specialist must acknowledge the importance of the general practitioner''s role in psychiatric diagnosis and treatment and give him more help. Medical schools must provide better undergraduate and postgraduate psychiatric training for the students who will become family doctors. Health plans and other prepayment agencies should properly compensate the general practitioner for giving psychiatric treatment. The specialist in psychiatry should consult more readily with the general practitioner and help him carry out some of the therapy. General hospitals should permit family doctors to admit mental patients to psychiatric wards in a general hospital and to carry out psychiatric treatment with the help of the specialist in psychiatry.     

Prevention of Mental Disorder—The Role of the General Practitioner

As prevention in psychiatry really refers to early detection and consequent prevention of complications and chronicity, the general practitioner is the most important person in the medical community in preventing mental disorders. As more postgraduate courses in psychiatry become available to practicing family physicians, the majority of patients with psychiatric disorders will be effectively managed by the general medical practitioner.The family physician is already doing this, although not as well as he could. In some instances, he may be unaware of the extent to which the disease with which he deals is psychic disease. As the number of community health centers increases, family physicians will play a vital role in their function. With the necessary knowledge to detect psychic disturbance and to treat emotional disorders effectively, the family physician will prevent many of the instances of progression to chronic psychiatric illness with which we are now plagued. The psychiatrist of the future will act as consultant, treating only patients with the more complicated mental disorders.     

Drug abuse,psychiatric disorders,and AIDS. Dual and triple diagnosis.

Substance abuse and psychiatric disorders commonly occur together. This form of dual diagnosis is notable because it complicates assessment and makes treatment more difficult for both psychiatric and drug abuse problems. Drugs can cause psychiatric disorders and can also be used as an attempt to "cure" them by self-medication. The spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) among drug users has added a third potential clinical problem, that of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, to the difficulties already presented by drug abuse and psychiatric disorders. Patients with this triple diagnosis pose challenges to primary care physicians as well as addiction medicine specialists or psychiatrists. Assessment should include a drug abuse history, preferably corroborated by others, evaluation of the mental state, and examination focusing on signs of drug abuse and HIV infection. Treatment should include the management of HIV disease, abstinence from drug abuse, and access to psychiatric care. New systems of health care service, including interdisciplinary case management, may be needed to manage patients with a triple diagnosis.     

Respiratory and psychiatric abnormalities in chronic symptomatic hyperventilation.

Many physicians believe that the hyperventilation syndrome is invariably associated with anxiety or undiagnosed organic disease such as asthma and pulmonary embolus, or both. Twenty one patients referred by specialist physicians with unexplained somatic symptoms and unequivocal chronic hypocapnia (resting end tidal Pco2 less than or equal to 4 kPa (30 mm Hg) on repeated occasions during prolonged measurement) were investigated. All but one complained of inability to take a satisfying breath. Standard lung function test results and chest radiographs were normal in all patients, but histamine challenge showed bronchial hyper-reactivity in two of 20 patients tested, and skin tests to common allergens were positive in three of 18. Ventilation-perfusion scanning was abnormal in a further three of 15 patients studied, with unmatched perfusion defects in two and isolated ventilation defects in one. None of the 21 had thyrotoxicosis, severe coronary heart disease, or other relevant cardiovascular abnormalities. Ten of the 21 patients were neurotic and suffered from chronic psychiatric disturbance characterised by anxiety, panic, and phobic symptoms. The remainder had no detectable psychiatric disorders but reported proportionately more somatic than anxiety symptoms. Severe hyperventilation can occur in the absence of formal psychiatric or detectable respiratory or other organic abnormalities. Asthma and pulmonary embolus must be specifically excluded.     

Psychiatric services in general hospitals: a report of the Northern California Psychiatric Society's committee on the need for psychiatric services in general hospitals

A study made by a special committee appointed for the purpose by the Northern California Psychiatric Society found that a real need exists for local psychiatric services in general hospitals of the Northern California area. Such services can be provided readily-and in some communities are already available. A broad segment of the population looks to the general hospital to provide diagnosis and care and so enable the patient's prompt recovery from psychiatric disorders. The study further emphasizes the importance of such factors as a competent psychiatric chief, adequate staff and personnel and good planning in organizing inpatient and outpatient facilities and integrating treatment so that all the functions of the hospital are available to psychiatric patients. Granted these special considerations, the services can be provided more easily than many physicians, including some psychiatrists and administrators, suppose.     

Psychiatric Morbidity and Referral on Two General Medical Wards

Psychiatric morbidity among 230 medical inpatients was determined by a two-stage screening procedure, using the General Health Questionnaire and Standardized Psychiatric Interview. Of these patients, 23% were considered psychiatrically ill, affective disorders being the commonest illnesses encountered; and 27 (12%) were psychiatrically referred. While referral was related to severity of psychiatric illness and previous psychiatric illness, the degree to which the psychiatric illness obtruded or created problems in management appeared more crucial in determining referral. In half of those with psychiatric illness the problems did not appear to have been detected or dealt with. It is suggested that medical clerking should routinely include questions about mood and psychological responses to illness.     

PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES IN GENERAL HOSPITALS—A Report of the Northern California Psychiatric Society's Committee on the Need for Psychiatric Services in General Hospitals

A study made by a special committee appointed for the purpose by the Northern California Psychiatric Society found that a real need exists for local psychiatric services in general hospitals of the Northern California area. Such services can be provided readily—and in some communities are already available. A broad segment of the population looks to the general hospital to provide diagnosis and care and so enable the patient''s prompt recovery from psychiatric disorders. The study further emphasizes the importance of such factors as a competent psychiatric chief, adequate staff and personnel and good planning in organizing inpatient and outpatient facilities and integrating treatment so that all the functions of the hospital are available to psychiatric patients. Granted these special considerations, the services can be provided more easily than many physicians, including some psychiatrists and administrators, suppose.     

Depression in New Haven, 1975-76: an epidemiologic study.

Results of a 1975--76 community survey of psychiatric disorders conducted in New Haven, Connecticut, are presented. These results represent the first application of new research diagnostic techniques to a community sample and demonstrate that major depression is the most common psychiatric disorder with a current prevalence rate of about 4 percent. Most persons with a diagnosis of major depression did not seek treatment from a professional for an emotional problem; few saw a psychiatrist or were hospitalized. They were, however, high attenders of nonpsychiatric physicians for problems they did not identify as emotional, and the majority used psychotropic drugs but usually not a tricyclic antidepressant. The scientific and policy implications of these findings are discussed.     

Performed and refused vasectomy: a decade of waning popularity and increasing awareness of safety

Family planning clinics and a random sample of private physicians throughout the US were surveyed in 1972 and 1984 to learn the incidence of performed and refused vasectomy, and to discern attitudinal change over time toward delayed physical and psychological sequelae related to vasectomy. Data show that, after a dramatic rise in popularity in the early 1970's, incidence has fallen significantly in the intervening years. The greater decrease was reported by physicians. Clinics experience a lower refusal rate which may be partially explained by physicians' predilection to practice defensive medicine. Other factors, such as counseling quality and applicant eligibility criteria, show little difference. Concern about physical sequelae has diminished, as has the importance of psychiatric symptomatology as a screening tool. Delayed psychological sequelae remain more ambiguous, with physicians deemphasizing the potential phenomena but clinical staff becoming somewhat more concerned. Nevertheless, both groups refused roughly the same % of applicants for psychological reasons. These conclusions are based on the responses of performers of vasectomy who had voluntarily registered with The Association for Voluntary Sterilization. All regions of the country were represented with return rates of 60% to 75% for the private physicians (114) and all registered clinics (72) in 1972, and 97 physicians and 78 clinics in 1984. The clinics attained the higher rates.     

19th-century academic examinations for physicians in the United States Army Medical Department.

During the latter half of the 19th century, the United States Army commissioned medical officers or hired civilian physicians to serve its troops. The civilian physician signed a contract for services, and the candidate for a commission was subjected to rigorous examinations before becoming an officer. The rigorous testing of prospective medical officers was necessary because of the lack of standardization in the education of physicians. Examples of the test, statistics, and individual records show how the Army dealt with unqualified candidates.