Can a Psychiatrist Really Tell What’s Wrong With You?
June 23, 2006
From digg.com: “The question has dogged mental-health clinicians for more than 30 years, ever since a famous experiment showed that healthy people will be labeled sick if they go to a psychiatric emergency room and act sick. Recently, a new study tried to repeat the experiment and failed, proving that shrinks aren’t as clueless today as they were then.”
One point in this article in particular stands out to me. It mentions the fact that visits with the psychiatrist are usually pretty short and sweet. Since starting work at the hospital in October, I’ve noticed the same thing. The initial interview with a new patient may last half an hour… 45 minutes tops. After that, our psychiatrists see every one of their patients each day… but usually only for a few minutes. I’ve often wondered just how much information such a short chat could provide the doctor.
The psychologists and the nurses fill endless pages with assessments and therapy notes… those of us who lead group sessions document attendance and participation daily… but I doubt the docs ever read those. And there have been numerous occasions where some member of the hospital staff has urged one of the psychiatrists not to discharge a patient for one reason or another… only to find discharge orders written anyway.
I don’t profess to be a doctor. But I spend more time with the patients than any of the doctors (or the psychologists and nurses for that matter). I’ve literally spent hours talking one on one with some patients during their stay. And they do/say things around me that they’d never do/say around the doctor. But has one of the psychiatrists ever asked me about any of it? We used to have one doctor who would… but he’s gone.
Maybe I should chalk it up to M.D. superiority complexes. Or maybe just a mental health field in need of reform. But whatever the cause, it continues to frustrate me to see sick people say the right things to get out and healthy people say the right things to stay.
To the doctors, anyway.
Posted in In the News, Series, Work
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