Am J Psychiatry 1980; 137:822-825
Copyright © 1980 by American Psychiatric Association
Psychiatric problems in third-year medical students
MH Sacks, WA Frosch, M Kesselman and L Parker
Each year as many as one of four medical students experience sufficient
emotional pain to seek psychiatric consultation. In many cases the
precipitating stress relates to specific stresses associated with the phase
of training. In the third year increased clinical responsibility may evoke
feelings centered on caretaking, sexuality, and aggression that cannot be
contained by an as yet fragile emerging professional identification. The
authors present four case histories of third-year medical students to
illustrate the complex interaction between family background, motivations
to enter medicine, and the specific patient experience that resulted in
sufficient distress to require psychiatric consultation.
