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Is routine physical examination of psychiatric in-patients really necessary?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Ian Porter
Ian Porter*
Affiliation:
Fromeside Clinic, Blackberry Hill Hospital, Stapleton, Bristol BS16 1ED
*
Correspondence: Dr I. Porter, 36 Downend Park. Horfield, Bristol BS7 9PU
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Abstract

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Although there are some well recognised physical disorders such as intracranial lesions that can present with mental illness, many psychiatric conditions do not appear to be associated with underlying somatic complaints. However, a number of recent studies have shown that there are often high rates of concurrent medical conditions among acute psychiatric in-patients that were previously undiagnosed or unsuspected. The author illustrates this point by presenting two case studies in which a significant medical condition was only identified after physical examination on a psychiatric unit.

Type
Original Papers
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , April 1996 , pp. 218 - 220
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, 1996

References

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