Volume 2 Issue 11 November, 2012
Experience may reduce our mistakes but does not eliminate it!!
A young college student was brought by her mother for depression with paranoid features. She came from a middle class family and both her parents were employed. She was started on anti‐ depressants and risperidone for the paranoid features. On enquiry it was also found that there was a boy friend who was her classmate, They met infrequently and part of the depressive features and crying were due to the fact the parents discouraged her from meeting him. She showed improvement over a period of time. The mother complained that the girl had not had her periods. I reassured them that it was only a side effect of the drug and it would soon be all right. However, I also got serum prolactin level done just to reassure them as well as myself. It was elevated and this only confirmed my suspicions.
One day the mother came along with the patient and announced that the girl was taken to a gynecologists, due to the delay in her periods and after a scan and pregnancy tests, the worst was confirmed. She was pregnant. This came as a shock to me as I did not think of this possibility. My clinical judgement was coloured by extraneous factors and I felt like a fool.
Lesson: No matter from what background the patients come from, one should be totally objective and not be carried away by our personal preconceptions and biases. The fact that it happened only 3 years ago, in my clinical practice, after all these years, made me realize, that making a mistake can happen to all of us, no matter, how experienced one is.(Post script: The families got them married and they are a happy family now)
He is the chairperson of Organizing committee of upcoming, Annual National Conference of Indian Psychiatry Society (ANCIPS) 2013
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