Why are child psychiatrists increasingly needed?
"Children have such carefree lives that they cannot be depressed" - if one adheres to such a belief, one is completely wrong. Adolescent patients can suffer from both mood disorders and...
What types of delusions do patients experience?
Delusions are incorrect judgements that patients experiencing them strongly believe to be true. This symptom can occur as a stand-alone problem, but also in the course of a large number of different...
Creativity and mental illness
Already the ancient Greeks discovered that there might be a correlation between creativity and mental illness, but for good measure, the motif of the artistic genius troubled by inner demons was only...
Anorexia - causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment
The onset of anorexia in the worst case can even be life-threatening. This is mainly due to the consequences of nutritional deficiencies, the deficit of which dysregulates the work of basically every...
Dementias - what will a psychiatrist say and what will a neurologist say?
Before someone becomes a neurologist or psychiatrist, they have to undergo medical school. Their programme includes the acquisition of both psychiatric and neurological examination skills. Thus, the...
Visiting a psychiatrist - what can the doctor ask?
The term "visit to a psychiatrist" often evokes unpleasant associations resulting in some patients avoiding visits to these specialists. Is there really a reason for this? Definitely not! Although...
Should mental illness really be a taboo subject?
Psychiatry is an important field of medicine. This can be evidenced by the fact that an internship in this field is - in addition to work in departments such as internal medicine or gynaecology - one...
Emergency conditions in psychiatry
In the practice of the clinician, we are faced, essentially, with two clinical circumstances. If, on the basis of the symptoms with which a person presents to the Emergency Department (or is brought...
People with similar mental disorders tend to pair up
The likelihood of being paired up with a person with a similar disorder is sometimes twice, sometimes three times, higher than forming a couple with a healthy person.
Hypomania - symptoms, diagnosis, treatment of affective disorders
Hypomania (hypomaniacal syndrome), usually described as a state of excessively elevated mood, a so-called 'high' or 'mania of milder intensity', can represent one of the episodes of bipolar affective...
Borderline personality. What are the boundaries of those affected by this disorder?
What does the term 'personality disorder' mean? A personality disorder is not in itself an illness, or at least it should not be equated with an illness. What is different is, for example,...
Eating disorders - types, causes, treatment
Food is an expressive symbol in our culture. A positive symbol. It is an expression of love, care, connection, respect. It is used to celebrate important events and mourn losses. It becomes as often...
Dangerous Baron Munchhausen syndrome
Baron Munchhausen syndrome is categorised as a sham disorder, involving the induction of psychosomatic symptoms with the aim of leading to hospitalisation. The aim of people with the syndrome, is to...
Self-harm as a mental illness
More and more mental health professionals are calling for self-harm to be included in the list of mental illnesses.
When jealousy breeds disease - Othello syndrome
Othello - one of the characters in Shakespeare's drama - has become synonymous with a person suffering from chronic jealousy. Othello syndrome is affecting more and more people. What is it and how do...
Delusions, anxiety, psychotic symptoms - do they always mean mental illness?
Schizophrenic-like symptoms, delusions, hallucinations often with fever, disorders of consciousness, hypoventilation, seizures, autonomic system disorders, dyskinesias. Such symptoms are regularly...
Professionalism in therapy: The rights of the psychiatric patient
We are starting our series. In the first episode, we look at the rights of the psychiatric patient: legal and ethical issues. Are these regulations sufficient for effective treatment, or is more...
Selected problems with food intake and digestion
Eating disorders are included in the group of psychiatric disorders and, as research shows, require detailed diagnosis and the inclusion of treatment (pharmacological agents, psychotherapy,...
Capgras syndrome - causes, symptoms, treatment
Capgras syndrome (Sozja syndrome) is classified as a psychiatric disorder, the so-called delusional misidentification syndrome (DMS) in which the patient experiences specific delusions.
Tourette syndrome - causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment
Tourette synd rome is a congenital neurological disorder described in 1885. The syndrome is more common in boys than in girls. The disorder is characterised by periods of relapse (worsening of...
