Volume 7 Issue 11 November, 2017
Personal History
My seniors in medical college taught me to write bowel, bladder, sleep and appetite as personal history.
When I joined Psychiatry, really I knew how much a detailed personal history helps, not only in diagnosis and treatment but also in prevention.
Psychiatric personal history starts from antenatal period, through natal, post natal, childhood, temperament, schooling, college, habits, occupation, sexual history, marriage, spouse, children, interpersonal relationships, personality, etc.
History of stress with in-laws is important in recurrence of peptic ulcer.
The farmer’s life during pollen season adds to his bronchial asthma.
Marital problems and living with alcoholic husband need to be highlighted in any headache history.
Whether one washes cloths at home or uses a laundry service, matters for skin problems.
I need not talk much about smoking, alcohol, drug dependence, extramarital sex, etc. They are all as important as history of diabetes and hypertension.
“I keep my house fully dust free, doctor. My servants keep leaving and my wife is very angry with me” An obsessive personality narrates about his asthma.
“I really cannot breathe well; my mother-in-law says I am acting” A dependent personality reports.
“My husband does not want to separate from his parents’ house. That house is not properly ventilated” A histrionic personality demands.
Only in my in-laws’ house I cannot breathe, in my mother’s house I had no such problem. It is a haunted house trying to kill me” a paranoid personality analyses the cause of her symptoms.
How I wish I learnt psychiatry history taking in undergraduate days, to put these relevant details in the case history.
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