“The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease.” – William Osler Imagine two patients presenting with the same complaint of low mood. One has a strong family history of depression and hypothyroidism. The other recently lost a parent, is socially isolated, and is struggling academically. Although both […]
Young Psychiatrists, All Is Not Written in Kaplan, Maudsley and NICE, But Your Seniors Know a Lot From Field Experience
After completing my postgraduate training in 2007, I started my career as an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Kurnool Medical College. Initially, my mind was filled with evidence-based treatment guidelines from NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence). I often expressed my arrogance and made funny remarks about the treatments prescribed by my seniors. […]
Implementing the NMC MD Psychiatry PG Appraisal Form: Perspectives from an Expert Panel
The implementation of the National Medical Commission (NMC) MD Psychiatry PG Appraisal Form marks an important step towards competency-based postgraduate medical education. During the panel discussion, experts from the Indian Psychiatric Society (IPS) and Indian Teachers of Psychiatry (IToP) reflected on the opportunities and challenges associated with adopting this framework across psychiatry training programs in […]
Thirdhand Smoke – The Invisible Risk
In tobacco care, we often talk about smoking and secondhand smoke. But there is another exposure that is easy to miss and just as important to understand: thirdhand smoke. It is the toxic residue that remains after a cigarette has been smoked, and it stays behind on walls, furniture, clothes, carpets, dust, and cars. This […]
Learning by Association: Classical Conditioning
How do we account for most soft drink advertisements showing the drink being consumed in association with friends having a great time, celebrations, music and exciting adventures? This marketing approach leverages a simple principle, first discovered and described by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, called classical conditioning. Pavlov was engaged in the study of digestion in […]
Reflections from an AA Meeting
“I am an alcoholic.” It is a sentence, but it is also a statement. It is the mandatory opening line for anyone speaking at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. To anyone, it may seem like a simple futile introduction, almost routine, but when I heard it, I felt the weight behind it. It was an acknowledgement […]
External Posting Essentials: Part 1 – Before You Leave
The external posting is among the most underutilised opportunities in Indian psychiatry residency training. Each year, hundreds of MD Psychiatry residents are sent to other institutions for four to twelve weeks of training in subspecialty areas their parent departments cannot offer, most commonly child and adolescent psychiatry, psychotherapy, and deaddiction medicine. Some return transformed. Many […]
The Auspicious Day
Millions of people worldwide believe certain days are auspicious and specific times in a day are auspicious. There will be millions of days that are not auspicious and billions of hours that are not auspicious if we get into this belief system. Just as I joined District Government Hospital as an Intern, I vaguely remember […]