Things you need for your psych rotation

[souljah1]

Greetings all,

I begin my psych rotation in 10 days or so. It is my first rotation for third year. I'm wondering if there were any texts, etc that you all felt were really helpful for your psych rotation. I know that for other rotations there are books that I see most of the students here using (i.e. CMDT for medicine), but I have no idea what to use for learning material for psychiatry. So, please post what you think are helpful resources to be prepared for psych.

Thanks.

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[kcrd]

We used the Kaplan and Saddock synopsis text for our 1st and 2nd year behavioral science courses, so I used that as my psych text. I carried "current clinical strategies in psych" in my pocket and used blueprints for the exam.

 

[DOtobe]

I used Kaplan and Saddock as well. I didn't think the Blueprints was very helpful for the rotation itself. It may be helpful for the shelf, though (we don't have shelf exams so I don't know).

 

[alina_s]

I didn't like the blueprints books for psychiatry or any rotation- not nearly detailed enough. I used Howard Goldman's Review of General Psychiatry and the Appleton and Lange question book.

 

[mdblue]

1.CCS is a good one to carry w/ you
2.Blueprints is OK for the shelf and the boards, but you need something more for psychopharm.
3.Nancy Andreasen's Clinical psych is also a good broad overview-very readable.
4.Don't go for Kaplan/Saddock's synopsis unless you are really interested in psych
Hope this helps[/LEFT]

 

[Blade28]

As mentioned already, the CCS psych and pharm mini-texts seem to be very popular. I just used a mini-DSM-IV-TR and Blueprints. Oh, I've also been doing QBank (for Step 2)...only around 150 psych questions, though.

 

[mochadoc]

I used Appleton and Lange and Blueprints(for shelf exam). I also found the Interview Guide for Evaluating the DSM IV Psychiatric Disorders and the Mental Status Exam (by Mark Zimmerman) helpful when having to interview patients and for my oral exam.

 

[DarksideAllstar]

I just had our Psych Med final and High Yield Psychiatry came up big for me. Its a concise review text, but hits all the major points (PDs, Mood, Therapies, MSE review). You will definitely need to have some other text to go into more depth, but all in all, I think this will be helpful for downtime during the rotation.

 

[Daiphon]

anyone have any thoughts/experience with clinical psychopharmacology made ridiculously simple? others @ my school have been raving about it, but i've read through most of the 'ridiculously simple' books and was only impressed with micro MMRS...

comments would be appreciated. thanks!

-t

 

[Blade28]

Hmmm...haven't seen anyone here use that book. It's either the mini CCS pharm book, Blueprints or BRS for the psychopharm.

 

[irlandesa]

I thought NMS Psych, Pre-test, and some of the handouts from the didactic presentations each student had to do were very helpful. The shelf is very oriented toward psychopharm (although there are plenty of straightforward Dx ?'s as well), so be sure you know your meds and illicit drugs (along w/Rx for overdose and symptoms of w/d). I didn't do that much studying for the shelf since I am not going into psych and scored above the national average, so you should be fine.

 

[bobbyseal]

For psych,

I'd recommend reading from your psychopath syllabus and maybe the psychopath text book. I didn't buy any extra texts or NMS stuff for psych. Pay attention to all your didactic lectures...As boring as they may be, they tell you what you need to know for the shelf. I did use pre-test and found it to be helpful.

As for the wards, I'd say try to make a few cameo appearances throughout the day and then spend the rest of the time studying for the shelf. I basically would come into the hospital, listen to morning report. I would talk to the residents in the morning about my patients and what I thought was going on with them. I may/may not talk to my patients that day. Typically, I would swing by the attending's office about 5x/week and ask questions about some psych topic. The rest of the day I would spend in the library. At around 2:30pm I would head back to the floor say hello to everyone again. Then I'd be out the door by the latest 3:00pm. Often times I was out the door by noon.

As for things to bring to the hospital, I'd recommend against wearing any provactive clothing or if you're male any neck ties. You don't want to have a tie around your neck if a patient loses his marbles. I was working on a lock down in patient unit which was kind of a spring board to the state mental hospital/jail so some people had committed crimes and were being rehab'd while others had committed not so bad crimes and were working their way to jail through bad behavior.

 

[mdblue]

For psych,


I may/may not talk to my patients that day.
Interesting-no wonder people are getting used to 15 min med-checks

 

[bobbyseal]

Well,

I think that is becoming the nature of psychiatry to some extent. A private practice doc can make a lot more money just managing meds rather than doing a lot of counseling. Counseling takes up a lot of time with just one patient. You can get through 4 people just managing meds. Like most things, medicine is a business these days.

 

[DOindahouse]

just your ears to listen to the patients and doc, nothing else, just learn as u go,

 

[Blade28]

just your ears to listen to the patients and doc, nothing else, just learn as u go,

Uh...but need to read up on DSM-IV criteria, meds, psychotherapy choices, etc., no?

 

[Jaded Soul]

I used these three books while on psych and ended up getting a 96 on the shelf.

(1) BRS Psychiatry
(2) CCS Psychiatry (pocketbook)
(3) Pretest Psychiatry

 

[southerndoc]

All I used was First Aid Psych. 98th percentile on the SHELF exam.

Of course I was a psych minor in college, so take it for whatever it's worth.

We used Kaplan & Saddock for our behavioral science section during our first year. It's a great book, but probably too much detail for a 6- to 8-week psych rotation.

 

[DrMom]

We used Kaplan & Saddock for our behavioral science section during our first year. It's a great book, but probably too much detail for a 6- to 8-week psych rotation.

This is our required text for our 4-week rotation

 

[southerndoc]

This is our required text for our 4-week rotation

DrMom, you have a lot of reading ahead of you my friend.

K&S is about 2200 pages long and the type is about 8 point. It's very small.

If it makes you feel any better, we had to read it in 5 weeks. It was a lot easier for us because we did it during the first year where behavioral science was the only thing we were studying. We didn't have clinical duties while trying to read it either.

Remember, just because it's required reading doesn't mean you can't substitute something else instead. K&S is a GREAT book, but it's wordy.

 

[DrMom]

Well, it looks like they have reading assignments out of it. We're using it for our psych class, but I don't do the reading assignments (or go to the lectures).

 

[DireWolf]

DrMom, a couple upperclassmen told me that the questions on the Psych rotation exam come directly from this book. They said the test is extremely difficult because they ask very random and specific questions as opposed to general concepts. A couple of them said they definitely did not finish reading it before they took the exam.

 

[southerndoc]

Well, it looks like they have reading assignments out of it. We're using it for our psych class, but I don't do the reading assignments (or go to the lectures).

Oh, so you aren't going to read it cover to cover then... that's not so bad. Well, I guess it depends on how many pages are cited.

 

[Blade28]

We used Kaplan & Saddock for our behavioral science section during our first year. It's a great book, but probably too much detail for a 6- to 8-week psych rotation.

Whoa, the $275+ version? Wow.

 

[willow212]

I agree with one of the above poster's rec of Zimmerman's "Interview Guide for Evaluating Dsm-IV Psychiatric Disorders and the Mental Status Examination".

It's a light little pocket book which only costs something like $11 and provides "askable" questions which cover the DSM-IV criteria for the major stuff you're going to see on your rotation, plus gives a handy couple pages on mental status exam in case you forget while you're interviewing. It's pretty much the only thing I carried with me.

As far as studying for the shelf, not sure since I didn't have to take it.

 

[bobbyseal]

Reading up on DSM IV criteria is very important. Many of the psych shelf questions give you a scenario and will ask for a diagnosis. Sometimes it's not so clear as to what the difference between, depression, bipolar disorder in a depressive state, dysthmic disorder, depression with melancholia, etc. So read up on all that stuff.

 

[southerndoc]

Whoa, the $275+ version? Wow.

No, not the full version. Sorry, I should have clarified - it's the Synopsis of Psychiatry version, which is about 2000+ pages long. I think the "big K&S" is about 3000 pages long and in two volumes if I'm not mistaken.