Question regarding a mentally ill pre-med student...

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Cinematic

Cinematic

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If you have been treated in a psychiatric hospital for suicide attempts/depression/etc, can medical schools find out when you apply?

I know there are HIPAA laws but would that student be protected?

The student has since then been in treatment, on the right meds, and very healthy.
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just a friendly advice, don't ever see a shrink empolyed at your med school/undergrad.
 
I'd imagine they wouldn't have a way of finding out unless you have a criminal record attached to your mental illness. I believe medical records are entirely confidential during the admissions process.
 
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Cinematic said:
If you have been treated in a psychiatric hospital for suicide attempts/depression/etc, can medical schools find out when you apply?

I know there are HIPAA laws but would that student be protected?

The student has since then been in treatment, on the right meds, and very healthy.
Click to expand...

Highly unlikely. If you were hospitalized somewhere that is affiliated with a school that you apply to, then I guess there would always be a remote chance. But then the physician would be violating HIPAA and could potentially be disciplined by the board.

That being said, if you go to med school, make sure that you take care of yourself-- you may find that you need to disclose to your school to go to doctor's appointments or whatever, but they probably don't need to know the details. Also, it would probably be prudent if you saw a psychiatrist that was private and not affiliated with the school or any programs that you were interested in applying to. This is probably being paranoid, but make sure to protect yourself until you know the type of people around you.
 
Handy388 said:
just a friendly advice, don't ever see a shrink empolyed at your med school/undergrad.
Click to expand...

noted! i learned that the hard way... i was attending a university a few states away from my house. i was loney, depressed, and desperate to talk to someone. i confided in a university counselor. after one meeting she thought i was bananas and i was asked to leave the university.

I WON'T MAKE THAT MISTAKE AGAIN.
 
I would go as far as masking my place of employment/school to a shrink if I ever need to. Fortunately I never had to see a shrink.
 
Some schools like mine will have mental health programs unaffiliated with the school making it impossible to the school to find out if you go.

To the poster above who was dismissed from their university after going to a psych...that seems a bit off to me. Sounds like that should be in violation of some sort of law.

HIPPA should protect you from the schools knowing anything about your past medical history
 
Disinence2 said:
To the poster above who was dismissed from their university after going to a psych...that seems a bit off to me. Sounds like that should be in violation of some sort of law.
Click to expand...

Nope, it happened to a bunch of kids at my undergrad. The law is written such that if your doc thinks you are a danger to yourself or others, confidentiality does not apply in a number of respects. The school then will say that attending is adding stress and that it's not good for your health and either kick you out or force you to take time off "for your own good".
 
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