Mental Illness

[eforest]

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Woops! I accidently put out a blank post. Anyways, as far as the survey goes, I was just curious.

 

[Jwax]

Depends on the mental illness. Depression, OCD, and Borderline personality kids would probably work out okay, but schizophrenics or bipolar or anything with psychotic or manic episodes are probably going to have an issue. I don't think I'd want a physician who was prone to psychotic breaks. 😱 Of course, I think med school makes us all a little crazy... so maybe none of us are fit.

If they get better drugs for these things, maybe it wouldn't be a big deal. After all, they used to say "homosexuality" was a mental illness, and I am comfortable with them being physicians.

 

[khadija]

i agree with the above poster. also, medicine is stressful enough on its own to drive people into depression or addicitions. i think the most important thing is not wheather or not this person has an illness, but whether or not they are able to deal with it. A person who is ill but ignores/denies their illness is a big risk to themselves and the people around them. The illness can be as simple as alcoholism (which after observing the drinking habits of some of my classmates, i'm afraid some of them will become).

Besides, isn't there something about how a person can't be accepted in medical school if they have a physical handicap preventing them from the dexterity required for being a doctor. I remember reading that somewhere. I imagine it includes mental illnesses.

 

[bcat85]

Depends on the mental illness. Depression, OCD, and Borderline personality kids would probably work out okay, but schizophrenics or bipolar or anything with psychotic or manic episodes are probably going to have an issue. I don't think I'd want a physician who was prone to psychotic breaks. 😱 Of course, I think med school makes us all a little crazy... so maybe none of us are fit.

If they get better drugs for these things, maybe it wouldn't be a big deal. After all, they used to say "homosexuality" was a mental illness, and I am comfortable with them being physicians.

I agree. As long as people are taking their medicine and handling it well, it should never be a problem. I have a family history of bipolar, and my family members have very productive careers and good family lives. I wouldn't see why, if it's well controlled, it would be any different in medicine.

 

[cpants]

Have you taken psych yet? Mental illness in medicine is like physical illness. Some diseases will impair your ability to practice medicine, some won't. A stable bipolar patient on meds should have no problems practicing. A paranoid schizophrenic probably can't practice, meds or no.

 

[Yakko]

OC is pretty common in med students.

 

[indo]

Frotteuristic behaviour is almost encouraged in medical school.