Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T23:29:50.301Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Are psychiatrists sexist? a study of bias in the assessment of psychiatric emergencies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Ion Hall  and
Martin Deahl
Ion Hall*
Affiliation:
Division of Psychiatry of Disability, St Georges Hospital, Medical School, Cranmer Terrace, London SW17 ORE
Martin Deahl
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, St Bartholomew's Hospital, London EC1A 7BE
*
∗Correspondence
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

In order to investigate bias in history taking among psychiatric trainees, a retrospective study of case-notes was undertaken in an emergency psychiatric clinic in a teaching district. Two hundred and twenty-seven consecutive new patient assessments were assessed for quality of alcohol, substance use and forensic histories. Trainees were more likely to take alcohol, substance use and forensic histories from men, and more likely to take substance use histories from younger patients. It is concluded that trainees make sexist and ageist assumptions when they assess patients. There is a need for the education of doctors in this area.

Type
Original Papers
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 19 , Issue 9 , September 1995 , pp. 538 - 540
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1995

References

Allen, H. (1986) Psychiatry and the construction of the feminine. In The Power of Psychiatry (eds P. Miller and N. Rose). Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Barrison, I. G., Viola, L. & Murray-Lyon, I. M. (1980) Do housemen take an adequate drinking history? British Medical Journal, 281, 1040.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dight, S. E. (1976) Scottish Drinking Habits: a Survey of Scottish Drinking Habits and Attitudes Towards Alcohol, Office of Population Censuses and Surveys. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Farrell, M. P. & David, A. S. (1988) Do psychiatric registrars take a proper drinking history? British Medical Journal, 296, 395–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goddard, E. & Ikin, C. (1988) Drinking in England and Wales in 1987, London: HMSO/OPCS.Google Scholar
Harrison, G., Owens, D., Holton, A., et al (1988) A prospective study of severe mental disorder in Afro-Caribbean patients. Psychological Medicine, 18, 643–657.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewis, G., Croft-Jeffreys, C. & David, A. (1990) Are British psychiatrists racist? British Journal of Psychiatry, 157, 410–415.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lilie-Blanton, M., Anthony, J. C. & Schuster, C. R. (1993) Probing the meaning of racial/ethnic group comparisons in crack cocaine smoking. Journal of the American Medical Association, 269, 993–997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nam, P. C. & Jones, R. G. (1994) Alcohol histories taken from elderly people on admission. British Medical Journal, 308, 248.Google Scholar
Oppenheimer, E. (1991) Alcohol and drug misuse among women—an overview. British Journal of Psychiatry, 158, (suppl. 10), 36–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Redman, S., Webb, G. R., Hennrikus, D. J., et al (1991) The effects of gender on diagnosis of psychological disturbance. Journal of Behavioural Medicine, 14, 527–540.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.