Psychiatry blog
Clinical teaching and practical ideas for your next study session.
Beyond “Monitor Weight”: A Psychiatry SAQ Framework for Patient Participation in Physical-Health Care
Learn the board-relevant distinction between a service monitoring a patient’s physical health and a patient participating in the plan: how to write active roles for optional self-tracking, lifestyle support, smoking cessation, and shared antipsychotic decisions without shifting clinical responsibility.
Tramadol Is More Than an Opioid: Why Venlafaxine Is the Board-Style Match
Venlafaxine is the classic pharmacologic match for tramadol, but the board fact matters because psychiatry clinicians must recognize tramadol as a serotonergic opioid during medication reconciliation and toxicity triage.
Panic or Benzodiazepine Withdrawal? A Safer Triage Decision
When a patient taking alprazolam presents with terror, tachycardia, and tremor after missed doses, the key question is not whether the symptoms resemble panic. It is whether the pattern signals withdrawal requiring medical monitoring, how to distinguish physical dependence from benzodiazepine use disorder, and how to move from rescue treatment to a supervised long-term plan.
Psychiatry SAQ Strategy: Separate the Hold From the Safety Plan
When an agitated patient refuses voluntary admission, the hardest part of the SAQ is not naming a form. It is showing how capacity, emergency detention, observation, environmental controls, lethal-means restriction, and reassessment fit together without overclaiming what a hold permits.
Functional Neurological Symptom Disorder and Trauma: Why the Positive Exam Matters More Than the Story
A history of childhood neglect or a later traumatic event can shape formulation, but it does not establish functional neurological symptom disorder. Learn how to separate diagnostic criteria from contextual risk and assess PTSD or dissociation without turning trauma into a diagnostic shortcut.
Alcohol Withdrawal Hallucinations: Hallucinosis or Delirium?
Hallucinations after alcohol cessation do not by themselves establish withdrawal delirium. This case discussion uses serial attention, awareness, arousal, and symptom fluctuation to distinguish alcohol-induced hallucinosis from delirium—and to guide monitoring, assessment tools, and safe adjunctive antipsychotic use.
Antipsychotic Metabolic Risk on Psychiatry Boards: Read the Endpoint Before You Choose
A broad question about antipsychotic metabolic risk can hide an important ambiguity: the answer changes with the endpoint and duration. Learn how to reason through the pharmacology, identify common traps, and turn one MCQ into durable retrieval practice.
Antipsychotic Weight Gain: Why Olanzapine and Clozapine Are Among the Highest-Risk Drugs
When weight gain is a major treatment concern, olanzapine is the classic board-style answer—but clozapine belongs in the same high-risk tier. Learn how comparative evidence, duration of follow-up, patient history, and monitoring should shape the choice without oversimplifying it.
When Baseline Cognition Misleads: Spotting Delirium on a Psychiatry SAQ
A focused guide to distinguishing delirium from preexisting neurocognitive disorder—and turning a psychiatry short-answer case into retrieval practice that improves clinical reasoning.
Delirium Superimposed on Mild Neurocognitive Disorder: Three Clues That Change the Diagnosis
Learn how acute onset, impaired attention, and changes in arousal help distinguish delirium superimposed on a preexisting neurocognitive disorder from baseline cognitive decline.
When the World Feels Unreal: PTSD, Dissociation, and Fear Extinction
A trauma survivor with nightmares, cue-triggered panic, memory gaps, nightly alcohol use, and fear of an ex-partner requires more than a quick PTSD label. This case shows how to protect safety, separate overlapping diagnoses, and use fear-extinction principles in trauma-focused care without overlooking dissociation or brain injury.