Good to have basic knowledge of psychiatry

DR M. P. Deva’s letter “Train GPs to detect depression” ( The Star, April 18) prompted me to share my journey as a non-psychiatrist who learnt to love psychiatry. My undergraduate training in psychiatry was mainly at a dedicated psychiatric hospital dealing with psychotic patients, which is not the best way to instil interest in a subject. As pointed out by Dr Deva, psychoses make up less than 10% of psychiatric illnesses.

There are many patients with headaches, non-cardiac chest pains, irritable bowel and chronic backache who have seen neurologists, cardiologists, gastroenterologists, orthopaedic surgeons and many other doctors. These patients would invariably have multiple investigative medical procedures done on them. To ascertain that these symptoms are psycho-somatic (mind affecting the body) in nature, a doctor has to take a good history, including a good social history.

A good social history would include occupational history, family background and current responsibilities. The initial consultations tend to be longer but once you have won them over, depressed and anxious patients are very grateful.

When suicidal or psycho-somatic patients fail on my treatment, I refer them to my psychiatric colleagues. To this end, I would like to thank my psychiatric colleagues who are ever so willing to share their knowledge because, I think, they know that it is impossible for 350 psychiatrists to serve the whole population of Malaysia.

Psychiatry may not be as glamorous as interventional cardiology or therapeutic endoscopy but it makes many patients feel better.

A NON-PSYCHIATRIST Malacca