Psychiatry
Viva practice from mental state examination to safe management
Psychiatry vivas test whether you can listen, examine the mind systematically, and translate findings into a safe management plan. Examiners follow your reasoning through diagnosis, formulation, and risk — then challenge gaps in consent, capacity, and follow-up with the same pressure you will face on the ward.
Practice viva exams for psychiatry.
Practice topics
What you can practice in Psychiatry
Cases draw from the topic areas below — the same domains postgraduate vivas expect you to reason through aloud, from preoperative assessment to crisis algorithms.
What examiners probe
Structured assessment spoken with clarity
Strong candidates present psychopathology precisely, separate facts from inference, and build a management plan that addresses biological, psychological, and social drivers. They know when to hold someone safely, when to treat in the community, and when the law and ethics shift the balance.
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What is your leading diagnosis and how does the mental state support it?
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How do you assess and document risk to self and others?
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What is your biopsychosocial formulation of this presentation?
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What treatment do you offer first — and how do you involve the patient?
High-stakes domains
Where psychiatry vivas get unforgiving
These domains span acute psychiatry, psychopharmacology, psychotherapy principles, ethics and law, addiction medicine, and consultation-liaison work — the core of postgraduate psychiatric oral examinations worldwide.
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Risk and safety planning
Self-harm, suicide, violence, and neglect are assessed systematically — examiners expect a spoken risk formulation, immediate safeguards, and a credible follow-up plan, not reassurance by instinct.
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Formulation, not symptom lists
History and mental state must synthesize into a biopsychosocial formulation that explains why this person is unwell now — and what you will do about it.
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Treatment across modalities
Drug choice, monitoring, psychotherapy fit, addiction medicine, and medical comorbidity are defended together — especially when capacity, consent, or forensic issues complicate care.
Whether you are assessing psychosis, mood disorder with suicide risk, delirium on a medical ward, substance withdrawal, or a complex capacity question, Viva Examiner keeps you answering aloud — then probes the gaps a senior examiner would notice.
Start with free full sessions each month. Subscribe for unlimited Psychiatry practice when your exam date approaches.
Add this specialty to your workspace, run a full live viva, and review structured feedback when you finish.
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