How Does the Oedipal Complex Resolve? Oedipus complex refers to the son–father competition for possession of his mother that occurs during the phallic stage of psychosexual development. The male child resolves it by crushing the hostility against and identifying with his father and repressing his feelings for his mother. The child takes on the mannerisms, standards, and behaviours of his father, and in this way, the superego develops at six. Trigger for the Resolution When the Oedipus complex forms, the boy remains in a constant conflict. He directs his libido towards his mother and develops an emotional rivalry with his father. Because of this rivalry, he wants to kill the father, but because of his position; becomes fearful that his father might castrate him—we call this castration anxiety.  Use of defences Defence mechanisms provide momentary relief of the conflict between the id and the ego. Repression and identification are the two mechanisms that help with this.  Repression

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Verbigeration Verbigeration is the monotonous repetition of syllables and words,  like perseveration--in which a person repeats words in response to a stimulus. However, verbigeration occurs when a person repeats words without a stimulus.  It is an extreme form of loosening of associations.    We observe it in organic disorders.

Differentiating between Vascular and Alzheimer's Dementia There are several points that can help differentiate between these two types of dementia. Hachinski Ischemic Score is a 13-item tool based on these factors on which a score of seven or above shows vascular dementia, while a score of three or lower points towards the diagnosis of Alzheimer's dementia. The presence of the items (given below) on this scale in a patient favours a diagnosis of vascular dementia. Here, the patient had an abrupt onset after he had a fall, a stepwise progression as showed by worsening after the falls, which might have been unrecognized TIAs and the course was fluctuating, as once he even improved slightly. However, the change in his personality, as suggested by his daughter when she said "he is no more the person he used to be" goes in favour of Alzheimer's dementia.   Abrupt onset Stepwise deterioration Fluctuating course Nocturnal confusion Relative preservation of personalit

Neuropathology of Alzheimer's Disease Gross Brain Changes The following are the gross changes in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease: Reduced weight of the brain Reduced cortical volume Dilated ventricles Deepening of sulci Magnetic Resonance Imaging On magnetic resonance imaging, the diagnostically most important finding is  atrophy , especially of the medial temporal lobe. It affects the entorhinal cortex the earliest but then it spreads to other regions of the temporal lobe and limbic lobe for example hippocampus, amygdala, and parahippocampus. Later, the pathology extends to the parietal lobe and eventually causes global atrophy. It spares frontal lobes until the late stage. The progression of atrophy occurs in a similar pattern as the progression of neuropathology. Dilated ventricles can show global atrophy, but the most reliable method is a direct measurement of volume. Expansion of the fissures is the indirect, and less reliable way to measure the atrophy. For

Practice MCQs for MRCPsych Paper B MCQs on Trauma Which of the following is part of a psychosocial intervention where the person seeking help witnessed the death of a loved one to violence?  Choose the best answer: They should talk about the incident as much as possible, even if they do not want to It is normal to grieve for any major loss, and in most cases, grief will diminish over time Avoid discussing any mourning process, such as culturally appropriate ceremonies/rituals, as it may upset them further Refer to a specialist within one week of the incident if they are still experiencing symptoms Source mhGAP training manuals for the mhGAP Intervention Guide for mental, neurological and substance use disorders in non-specialized health settings- version 2.0 (for eld testing). Geneva: World Health Organization; 2017 (WHO/MSD/MER/17.6). Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.

On Being Sane in Insane Places: David Rosenhan and his Thud Experiment David Rosenhan, 1973.  The “ Rosenhan Experiment”  or Thud experiment was a study conducted to determine the validity of the psychiatric diagnosis. The participants feigned hallucinations to enter psychiatric hospitals but acted usually afterward. They diagnosed them with psychiatric disorders and gave them antipsychotic medication. David Rosenhan, a Stanford University professor, conducted this study, and published it in the journal Science in 1973 under the title “On Being Sane in Insane Places”. Some consider it an essential criticism of psychiatric diagnosis and broach wrongful involuntary commitment. Rosenhan did the study in eight parts. The first part involved using healthy associates or “pseudopatients” (three women and five men, including Rosenhan himself) who briefly feigned auditory hallucinations to gain admission to twelve psychiatric hospitals in five states in the United States. They admitted all and

Final MRCPsych Examinations must be Rigorous The Royal College accepts you into the Psychiatry Training Program in the UK when you have passed all three parts of the MRCPsych Examinations and have two years of experience of work in psychiatry. So, the final or the exit exam serves as a selection-criterion. Davis et al. has criticized and suggested changes to the system.

Insanity defense or the plea of insanity is based on McNaughton’s rules in English law. In the states, four variants of the insanity defense exist, namely: McNaughton, irresistible impulse, substantial capacity, and Durham. Some states do not recognize the insanity defense. There are two requirements for this defense. Firstly, at the time of the crime, the defendant must have been suffering from a ‘mental defect’ or a“defect of reason” or a “disease of the mind,” depending on the jurisdiction. Secondly, due to the mental defect, he/she did not know either the nature and quality of the criminal act or that the act was wrong.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) Introduction Structural imaging reveals the static physical characteristics of the brain. It makes it useful in diagnosing disease. Functional imaging reveals dynamic changes in brain physiology that might correlate with cognitive functioning, for example. Neural activity consumes oxygen from the blood. This triggers an increase in blood flow to that region and a change for deoxyhemoglobin in that region. As the brain is always physiologically active, functional imaging needs to measure relative changes in physiological activity. The most basic experimental design in functional imaging research is to subtract the activity in each part of the brain whilst doing one task away from the activity in each part of the brain whilst doing a slightly unfamiliar task.  We call this cognitive subtraction . Other methods, including parametric and factorial designs, can minimize many of the problems associated with cognitive subtraction. There is no foolp