Dear Doctor, Date:15 11 2012 My son is a medical doctor specialized in Social and Preventive medicine MD(SPM) He is frustrated as he says he cannot treat patients and being called as a doctor. Now he wants to appear for competitive entrance exam and do MD or DNB in clinical subject. But moment he opens his medical books he feels that all diseases are with him or his family memebres. He says he is not able to concentrate on studies. He always feels depressed and prefers loneliness If some stranger comes home he will avoid them .may be he subconsciously feels some one will notice him as a doctor . but cannot treat patients .He suffers from inferiority complex He is very good at Public Health and even can write original research papers in his subject. It appears when in 1st year MD ( SPM ) a professor introduced the subject saying that the students who choose Public Health are near to suicide in medical career . He is now 38 years old , highly intelligent and hard working . He complains of panic attacks if hears any loud noise or some thing wrong in health to his family members., or any phone call comes to him when is on work . He is introvert and does not share his worries with any one . He feels he is over burdened by his parents health matters and he has to handle all the responsibilities of aging parents and he cannot treat them . May I seek your guidance to make my son shine in medical field.Does he need a short course of psychiatric medication to make him regain confidence and interest in life., concentrate in studies again. regards SKKChalla EMAIL ID : YYYY@YYYY
Hi...currently your son is having both depressive and anxiety symptoms.his depressive symptoms are secondary to his anxiety symptoms. If initially the cause of anxiety is that you are unable to treat the patient as a medical doctor, if you are having job as an MD-PSM in govt. then I think you are free after 5 or 6 pm, so you can improve your clinical skill to join any good senior physician during evening hrs and by doing this you can improve your clinical skill within 5-6 month so no need for preparation of any exam like DNB.... and preparing for DNB or other exam is not a better option at the age of 38, as even after doing DNB you have waiting period in private practice one good aspect of non-clinical side is that you are free after 5pm, you can spend your extra time in other creative activities.....and before any thought about DNB, one advise is to visit few freshly pass out clinical doctors, also to ask them about their working hrs, no of patients they are treating, about their practicing style, about their satisfaction, about their earning.... to reduce anxiety-do routine well, handle day to day issue as much as possible from your side, not blew yourself for everytimegive time to your self to think about carrier decision, what should be possible currently take opinion of senior of both clinical and non-clinical side.