Important topics for IMM Psychiatry

The following is the list of important topics for those of you preparing for IMM in Psychiatry

Important Topics for the IMM exam in


  1. Breaking the Bad News: Steps and Models, Handbook of Behavioral Sciences, Prof. Mowadat Hussain Rana. 
  2. Pellagra (Lishman)
  3. Perception, Handbook of Behavioral Sciences, Prof. Mowadat Hussain Rana.
  4. Biopsychosocial model. Handbook of Behavioral Sciences, Prof. Mowadat Hussain Rana.
  5. IQ testing including Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Stanford Binet, culture fare and age-appropriate tests
  6. Personality tests (Psychology Themes and Variations (Weiten), 10th Edition., the Shorter Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry 7th Edition, Kaplan and Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry: Behavioral Sciences/Clinical Psychiatry, 11th Edition.) There are other psychometric tests and scales, especially for schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder, and dementia.
  7. The Clock drawing test
  8. Mini-Mental State Examination, components, and scoring.
  9. Scales of personality assessment: Psychology Themes and Variations (Weiten), 10th Edition., Kaplan and Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry: Behavioral Sciences/Clinical Psychiatry, 11th Edition.
  10. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory.
  11. Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)/Rorschach: Mastering Psychology
  12. Components of WAIS and Stanford Binet, mastering psychology
  13. Hachinski Ischemic Score (internet)
  14. Frontal lobe assessment
  15. Lobar assessment (Kaplan USMLE neuroanatomy)
  16. Scales used for organicity (Kaplan behavior sciences USMLE)
  17. amygdala and its connections (internet, Prof. Mowadat Hussain Rana. )
  18. Neuroanatomy of emotions (Prof. Mowadat Hussain Rana. )
  19. Defense mechanisms (from Kaplan behavioral sciences for the USMLE)
  20. Research methods.... sampling techniques (CPSP booklet)
  21. Informational Care, Handbook of Behavioral Sciences, Prof. Mowadat Hussain Rana.
  22. Holistic medicine Handbook of Behavioral Sciences, Mowadat Hussain Rana
  23. Health belief model (from the internet)
  24. Wilson's disease (Medscape)
  25. Acute intermittent porphyria (Medscape)
  26. Cognitive distortions of fish psychopathology
  27. Phenomenology
  28. Abnormality (abnormal psychology and m Rana)
  29. Culture-bound syndromes (Kaplan)
  30. Group therapies
  31. Therapeutic community
  32. CBT, oxford
  33. Behavioral techniques
  34. Crisis intervention
  35. Dialectical behavior therapy
  36. Operant conditioning by B. F. Skinner (aka Instrumental Conditioning)
  37. Observational learning
  38. Classical Conditioning
  39. Anorexia nervosa
  40. Sleep disorders classification
  41. Insomnia, sleep hygiene, treatment
  42. Phases of sleep and sleep waves
  43. Conversion disorder
  44. Hypochondriasis
  45. Violence, assessment, and management according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) summarized in the Shorter Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry 7th Edition.
  46. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
  47. Post-traumatic stress disorder
  48. Psychosocial interventions for schizophrenia
  49. Genetics of schizophrenia
  50. Developmental theories of schizophrenia
  51. First-rank symptoms of schizophrenia
  52. Symptoms of chronic schizophrenia and how to elicit them
  53. Neurotransmitters involved in schizophrenia
  54. Alzheimer’s dementia
  55. Vascular dementia
  56. Investigations for dementia
  57. Huntington
  58. Multiple sclerosis, oxford, and Kaplan internal medicine for USMLE
  59. Epilepsy, oxford but for pharmacological management read Lippincott pharmacology
  60. Differential and classification of bipolar disorders.
  61. Differentials of schizophrenia
  62. Agoraphobia
  63. Panic disorder (management to be read from Medscape, summary, also read it in oxford handbook)
  64. Lithium
  65. Electroconvulsive therapy
  66. Antipsychotics (the Shorter Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry 7th Edition.)
  67. Clozapine, Maudsley
  68. Extrapyramidal Symptoms: Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines (13th Edition)
  69. SSRIs (side effects) the Shorter Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry 7th Edition.
  70. Duloxetine, the Shorter Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry 7th Edition.
  71. Neuroleptic malignant syndrome, esp. Risk Factors (The Shorter Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry 7th Edition, Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines (13th Edition)
  72. Choosing antidepressants in the liver or renal illness.
  73. Choice of Psychotropics in pregnancy
  74. Psychotropics in old age and childhood (tables)
  75. Ethical pillars
  76. Rights and responsibilities of patients and doctors.
  77. Consent, Confidentiality, Doctor-Patient Relationship, the Shorter Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry 7th Edition.
  78. Models of the Doctor-Patient Relationship, Handbook of Behavioral Sciences, Mowadat H. Rana
  79. Theories of personality
  80. Freud
  81. Carl Jung
  82. Adler
  83. Social cognitive theory
  84. Rogers theory and His Therapy: Mastering Psychology
  85. Maslow’s hierarchy and applications, Handbook of Behavioral Sciences, Mowadat H. Rana.
  86. Memory improvement tip
  87. Causes of forgetting
  88. Steps/Stages of memory
  89. Metabolic Syndrome, Mastering psychiatry
  90. Child abuse (Oxford) and its neurobiology
  91. Pellagra
  92. Psychoanalytical vs psychodynamic therapy, oxford handbook
  93. Refeeding syndrome, net
  94. Management of depression and bipolar disorder, summary
  95. Dysthymia
  96. Biopsychosocial etiological factors of depression (just make a table from oxford and memorize)
  97. Borderline personality disorder
  98. Etiological Theories of Antisocial Personality Disorder
  99. Classification of personality by Kretschmar and Sheldon
  100. Kohlberg's stage theory
  101. Piaget's theory of cognitive development.
  102. Erickson’s Stage theory of development
  103. Bowlby theory of attachment (Kaplan)
  104. Autosomal recessive and dominant inheritance and their example disorders (Kaplan biochemistry and genetics for USMLE, first aid for the USMLE S1)
  105. Intelligence tests, Kaplan
  106. Types of intelligence by Gardner
  107. Pharmacological treatment for anxiety disorders, summary, Maudsley
  108. Hypothyroidism, Medscape
  109. Enuresis
  110. Tourette syndrome (differential from Kaplan and treatment from Maudsley)
  111. Determinants of intelligence
  112. Features of a good psychological test (validity, reliability, specificity, sensitivity, etc.)
  113. Down syndrome,
  114. Physical examination of learning disability
  115. Profiles of mild-moderate and severe learning disability (the table in Oxford)
  116. Causes of poor adherence and how to improve it., Maudsley
  117. Benzodiazepine abuse (Oxford and Maudsley)
  118. Alcohol abuse (whole topic)
  119. Neurobiology of tolerance and withdrawal
  120. Features of drug dependence syndrome
  121. TCA Toxicity (Medscape)


Kaplan=Kaplan and Sadock Synopsis of Psychiatry 11th edition

If a book is not suggested for a certain topic, it means to do it from short oxford or themes and variations

I Will add more topics

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