Latest Psychiatrist Interview Preparation Guide

Download PDF

An acute organic brain syndrome secondary to physical causes in which consciousness is affected and disorientation results often associated with illusions, visual hallucinations and persecutory ideation.

A dyspraxia is a difficulty with a previously learnt or acquired movement or skill. An example might be a dressing dyspraxia or a constructional dyspraxia. Dyspraxias tend to indicate cortical damage, particularly in the parietal lobe region.

A partial of complete loss of memory. Anterograde amnesia is a loss of memory subsequent to any cause e.g. brain trauma. Retrograde amnesia is a loss of memory for a period of time prior to any cause.

In mania and hypomania thoughts become pressured and ideas may race from topic to topic, guided sometimes only by rhymes or puns. Ideas are associated though, unlike thought disorder.

Anxiety is provoked by fear or apprehension and also results from a tension caused by conflicting ideas or motivations. Anxiety manifests through mental and somatic symptoms such as palpitations, dizziness, hyperventilation, and faintness.

Parietal lobe signs include various agnosias (such as visual agnosias, sensory neglect, and tactile agnosias), dyspraxias (such as dressing dyspraxia), body image disturbance, and hemipareses or hemiplegias.

This follows frontal lobe damage or may be consequent upon a lesion such as a tumour of infarction. There is a lack judgement, a coarsening of personality, disinhibition, pressure of speech, lack of planning ability, and sometimes apathy. Perseveration and a return of the grasp reflex may occur.

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterised by excess control - a morbid fear of obesity leads the sufferer to try and limit or reduce their weight by excessive dieting, exercising, vomiting, purging and use of diuretics. Sufferers are typically more than 15% below the average weight for their height/sex/age. Typically they have amenorrhoea (if female) or low libido (if male). 1-2% of female teenagers are anorexic.

Schneider classified the most characteristic symptoms of schizophrenia as first-rank features of schizophrenia. These included third person auditory hallucinations, thought echo, thought interference (insertion, withdrawal, and broadcasting), delusional perception and passivity phenomena.

In psychotic mental disorders and organic brain syndromes a patient's insight into whether or not they are ill and therefore requiring treatment may be affected. In depression a person may lack insight into their best qualities and in mania a person may overestimate their wealth and abilities.

The behavioural component of an obsession. The individual feels compelled to repeat a behaviour which has no immediate benefit beyond reducing the anxiety associated with the obsessional idea. For instance for a person obsessed by the idea that they are dirty, repeated ritual handwashing may serve to reduce anxiety.

My major interest is general adult psychiatry. I would like to practice both in a hospital and in an outpatient clinical setting. If i have the opportunity to join your faculty, I will because I enjoy teaching and research.

A variability of mood over days or weeks, cycling from positive to negative mood states. The variability is not as severe in amplitude or duration as to be classified as a major affective disorder.

An unpleasant or nonsensical thought which intrudes into a person's mind, despite a degree of resistance by the person who recognises the thought as pointless or senseless, but nevertheless a product of their own mind. Obsessions may be accompanied by compulsive behaviours which serve to reduce the associated anxiety.

An experience where the self is felt to be unreal, detached from reality or different in some way. Depersonalisation can be triggered by tiredness, dissociative episodes or partial epileptic seizures.

My senior from my country, a good friend of mine, who is....., highly recommended your program. And after a thorough research on Frieda and your website, I found your program has what he claimed: excellent curriculum teaching and clinical training, img friendly team environment, and attractive location for my family.

Working on an electronic medical record program is an essential part of the job for any physician, including Psychiatrists. Talk about the experiences that you have working on different programs and be sure to point out your comfortability working on the program. As well, discussing the importance of utilizing the system will go a long way with the interviewer.

Described by Russell in 1979, bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder characterised by lack of control. Abnormal eating behaviour including dieting, vomiting, purging and particularly bingeing may be associated with normal weight or obesity. The syndrome is associated with guilt, depressed mood, low self-esteem and sometimes with childhood sexual abuse, alcoholism and promiscuity. May be asociated with oesophageal ulceration and parotid swelling (Green's chubby chops sign).

A syndrome ascribed to neuroleptics. The syndrome includes hyperpyrexia (temperature over 39 degrees Celsius), autonomic instability and muscular rigidity. The syndrom is not dose related and appears to be related to a very wide variety of substances including antidepressants, antipsychotics and lithium. There is a significant risk of mortality. Whether the syndrome is a variant of the lethal catatonia syndrome (described before the advent of modern neuroleptics) is a debated point.

A speech disorder in which the person inappropriately and automatically repeats the last words he or she has heard. Palilalia is a form of echolalia in which the last syllable heard is repeated endlessly.

Psychiatric neuroscience and psychopharmacology. For the former, brain imaging is a hot topic, for the latter, nowadays there are many new and effective drugs adding to our treatment arsenal.

An experience where the person perceives the world around them to be unreal. The experience is linked to depersonalisation.

Tests the candidate's ability to take ownership of any mistakes and rectify them.

In order to properly track changes in patients’ behaviors, you must thoroughly document each encounter and meeting with your patients. I keep very detailed records of all my interactions with doctors, patients and other nurses in order to be able to refer back to them for comparison.