Management of schizophrenia Clinical assessment The differential diagnoses shown in Figure 1 should be excluded by history and mental state examination, and by interviewing informants. If there is any suggestion…

Classification of mood disorders Case history 13 Sarah is a 35-year-old woman who has been diagnosed with recurrent depressive disorder. She thinks this diagnosis is misleading, as each of her…

Mental capacity Case history 4 Sarah, a 75-year-old widowed woman, has rheumatoid arthritis and recently told her daughter that death would be a welcome escape from a life of chronic…

The Mental Health Act Case history 5 A 35-year-old woman has become increasingly withdrawn and pre-occupied over the last month. She is beginning to neglect herself and it appears that…

Antidepressant drugs Case history 6 Nilanjan is a 52-year-old year old man who presents with a moderate to severe depressive episode. He is despondent and hopeless, with fatigue, poor motivation…

Psychological treatments Psychological treatments may be used alone or in combination with physical treatments. They provide some of the most powerful means of treating many types of mental illness. The…

Benzodiazepines and drugs for dementia Benzodiazepines The benzodiazepines are known as ‘minor tranquillisers’. During the 1960s and 1970s they were enormously popular, but as the risk of dependence has been…

Mental health services II Case history 2 Jess has been treated in an inpatient unit under section 3 of the Mental Health Act. She was admitted with an acute manic…

Mood stabilisers and ECT Mood stabilisers The discovery that lithium reduces the risk of both manic and depressive relapse in bipolar affective disorder has resulted in it being viewed as…