The Recognition of Psychiatric Illness by Non-Psychiatrists

Abstract

Psychiatric illness occurs commonly during the course of medical and surgical illnesses, and commonly presents to non-psychiatric physicians inextricably mixed with physical symptoms. Non-psychiatrists vary widely between themselves in their ability to detect such disorders, so that such disorders are often missed. Reasons for failure to detect such disorders include the diagnostic practices taught in medical schools, the inadequacy of psychiatric taxonomy of neurosis, and the fact that most doctors have not been taught how to interview their patients.