“People talk about physical fitness, but mental health is equally important. I see people suffering and their families feel a sense of shame about it, which doesn’t help. One needs support and understanding.” – Deepika Padukone
Well, I’ve just survived my Internal Medicine rotation more or less unscathed and now I’ve moved onto my psychiatry rotation. Psychiatry is that branch of medicine focused on the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mental, emotional and behavioural disorders. In high school, I had done a survey into the incidence of suicide in my village at both the Fifth and Sixth Forms. While I investigated this scourge that had pushed us up to the top the dubious world rankings, I discovered, of course, that suicide is quite highly correlated with depression and did what was inevitably a preliminary inquiry into the causative factors and treatment. I, in fact, did interview a psychiatrist and I have looked forward to being exposed to this area of medicine.
For our first psych class, we were tasked with drawing a circle, meant to represent our heads. We had to think about the factors that influenced our ethics and then fill in the circle with those factors, with the amount of space we allocated to each factor corresponding to the importance we placed on that factor. We then had to exchange charts to see our classmates’ take on the assignment.
It ended up being a pretty interesting assignment. There was a lot of overlap in the factors that people chose things like the law, religion, family and education. But what I found most interesting was the varying levels of importance different people gave to each factor.
For some, the law was the biggest factor that played into their ethical decisions and for others, religion was the most important factor.
We also realised that there was no way to jot down all of the factors that influence our ethics – they’re simply too many. But I think it’s something we should all think about. What guides your ethical compass?
We then discussed several scenarios where an ethical dilemma might arise. There were some areas where the decisions were pretty cut and dry – like having a relationship with your patient, that’s pretty much a no-no. Other scenarios seemed greyer – there was a scenario discussing the appropriateness of a doctor posting pictures on social media of him “clowning around”. There was some debate in the group as to what exactly “clowning around” entailed and it led us to a discussion about the amount doctors can and should share on social media, while still maintaining a professional demeanour.
It’s been one week into the psychiatry rotation and this first week has been an orientation to the clerkship. It’s been interesting so far, and it’s refreshing after five rotations of studying physical ailments, to learn about mental ailments.
It’s definitely a rotation that forces more introspection and discussion than the other rotations. Like one of the doctors explained to us, there are lab tests to diagnose disease like diabetes, but to make a diagnosis of mental illness isn’t as clear-cut. There was also a lot of discussion about the stigma against mental illness, even within the medical profession.
Tomorrow will be my first day on the wards for psychiatry and I’m really looking forward to exploring this other facet of medicine. This is my final rotation for year four, and it’s shaping up to be an interesting one. We are, after all, creatures whose minds are as important as our bodies.
