A survey of psychiatrists’ attitudes towards the physical examination

Abstract

Background: Studies have shown that most psychiatric patients do not receive a thorough physical examination (PE).

Methods: Psychiatrists working with Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust were surveyed to determine factors influencing the performance of PEs, including their attitudes towards conducting them.

Results: Responses from 118/192 (61%) psychiatrists showed that most (96%) believe that the PE is important. The majority (72%) indicated that their PE skills had diminished since working in psychiatry and this was reported more by senior psychiatrists compared to junior trainees (85 versus 40%). 77% considered that a patient’s mental state should have a bearing on the type of PE the psychiatrist performs.

Conclusions: Likely reasons for poor performance of PEs include: shortage of time and equipment, challenges associated with agitated or uncooperative patients, and possibly a degree of skill atrophy, especially in senior psychiatrists. Further research is needed to investigate if strategies addressing these factors would improve the standard of PEs on psychiatric patients.

• Attitudes
• clinical skills
• physical examination
• physical health
• psychiatrists
• psychiatry

Declaration of interest

This work was carried out in Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, Leicester, UK. This survey received no specific funding and all authors have no conflict of interest to report.