to front line physicians, who always
have some degree of trepidation handling such patients, who demand
both time and attention,” said Dr Goh Siang Hiong, Chief of
A&E, CGH.
Each book costs $20 and will be sold during the GP Continuing Medical
Education (CME) workshops held on 2 Oct 2004.
For book enquiries and sales, please call Ms Goh Li Li at
Tel: 6850 3528.
The
Alcoholic Who Saw a Car in the Ward
A 45-year-old Chinese man was admitted to the medical ward for
epigastric pain and was assessed by gastroenterologists to have
gastritis. He was a known alcholic who had repeated hospitalisations
for abdominal pain, for which acute pancreatitis was occasionally
suspected. He was thus being warded for a longer period of observation.
On the third night, the house officer was called to attend to
an emergency, as the patient was observed to be in a frantic
state, shouting that there was a car crashing into his room,
and seen desperately trying to climb out of the window. He was
given immediate sedation. The next morning, during the ward
round, he was found to be lucid. He described how real and terrifying
this experience was the previous night.
The medical team requested an urgent psychiatric consultation
for him: “This patient has visual hallucinations. Please
assess if he is psychotic.” Extracted
from “Psychiatric Consultations in the General Hospital” |
Authors
1. Dr Tay Woo Kheng, Senior Consultant Psychiatrist and Head
of Division of Psychological Medicine
2. Dr Andrew L H Peh, Senior Consultant Psychiatrist
3. Dr Ng Li Ling, Senior Consultant Psychiatrist
4. Dr Yap Hwa Ling, Senior Consultant Psychiatrist
5. Dr Angelina Chan, Consultant Psychiatrist
6. Dr Vinnie Y L Hoe, Associate Consultant Psychiatrist
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