Medical Education
Clinical teaching and practical ideas for your next study session.
Actigraphy in Bipolar Sleep Assessment: Pattern, Not Diagnosis
Actigraphy can map rest and activity over time and may flag a change worth assessing, but it cannot establish that a bipolar mood episode is beginning or measure circadian phase on its own. Learn how to combine wrist data with a sleep diary, mood history, and the patient’s baseline.
SSD vs Illness Anxiety Disorder: When Symptoms Dominate
Severe chronic pain, headaches, or nausea shift the differential toward somatic symptom disorder, but do not prove it. Learn the criteria and interview questions that distinguish SSD from illness anxiety disorder.
Before PMDD Surgery: What a GnRH Agonist Trial Can Tell You
For severe, treatment-resistant PMDD, a GnRH agonist trial can inform decisions about irreversible ovarian surgery. Learn what improvement, nonresponse, and add-back effects do—and do not—mean.
Psychiatric Malpractice Review: Separating Evidence From the Legal Standard
In psychiatric negligence review, experts explain relevant professional practice and apply it to the facts known at the time. Guidelines may inform that opinion, but do not automatically define the legal standard.
Poorly Controlled Diabetes: When Is Depression Due to It?
A high A1C does not settle whether a depressive syndrome is caused by diabetes. Learn how to distinguish a direct medical cause from co-occurring major depression and diabetes distress.
Delirium and Refusal of Surgery: Who Can Authorize Treatment?
When delirium prevents a patient from weighing a time-critical operation, a capacity finding is not consent. Learn how best-interests reasoning, prior wishes, legal proxies, urgency, and restraint shape the next step in England and Wales.
Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis: Receptor Loss, Not Just Blockade
Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis is driven chiefly by antibody-mediated receptor cross-linking and internalization—not simply a plugged ion channel. Learn how that mechanism should inform psychiatric assessment, evolving symptoms, and antibody-test interpretation.
PTSD vs Adjustment Disorder: Persistence Is Not the Divider
Intrusive memories and a sense that danger continues do not by themselves separate PTSD from adjustment disorder. Learn how trauma exposure, symptom pattern, timing, and impairment guide the distinction.
After a Teen Discloses Cutting: Balancing Safety, Privacy, and Family Support
A teen may describe cutting as pressure relief, but neither a fixed relief-to-shame cycle nor the stated function settles suicide risk or caregiver disclosure. Learn how to assess safety, explain confidentiality limits, and involve a safe adult collaboratively—including when active suicidal ideation calls for disclosure.
ICD-11 Complex PTSD: The DSO Clusters That Change the Diagnosis
Early trauma and relationship difficulties can raise suspicion for complex PTSD, but they are not the diagnosis. Learn how to assess the PTSD core, all three DSO domains, and functional impact.
Violence Risk Formulation: From Risk Factors to Scenarios
Turn a vague “high risk” label into a time-bound, target-specific account of what could happen, under what conditions, and what could reduce the risk.
Dementia and Firearms: Assess Access Before a Crisis
A focused guide to assessing firearm access in dementia: look beyond the diagnosis to current abilities, behavior, household access, and a realistic safety plan.