Mental Health
Recognition, risk assessment and longitudinal management of mental illness in primary care.
How to prepare for the MRCGP AKT
Build broad current clinical knowledge, then rehearse evidence interpretation and the ethical, administrative, statutory and regulatory decisions unique to UK primary care.
Core concepts
Concept 1
Mood, anxiety, psychosis, trauma, eating disorders, self-harm, suicide risk and medicine monitoring.
Exam cue: Name the exact decision and time point before reviewing the options.
Concept 2
Integrate symptoms, function, risk, physical health, capacity and patient preference into stepped care.
Exam cue: Separate the decisive clinical, numerical or governance fact from plausible background detail.
Concept 3
Respond to immediate suicide, self-neglect, violence, psychosis, mania and safeguarding risk.
Exam cue: Choose the safest proportionate action for UK general practice and include follow-up or escalation where relevant.
Concept 4
Apply current UK guidance and patient context while accepting that the most appropriate answer may be no investigation, prescription or referral.
Risk pitfalls and guardrails
Using a screening score as the whole assessment or overlooking physical disease and medicine effects.
Guardrail: Do not choose a familiar fact or technically possible action when the stem asks for the most appropriate current UK primary-care decision.
Recalling a guideline fragment without checking whether it applies to this patient, population or administrative context.
Guardrail: Do not choose a familiar fact or technically possible action when the stem asks for the most appropriate current UK primary-care decision.
Choosing an action that is possible but not the most appropriate option at the stated point in care.
Guardrail: Do not choose a familiar fact or technically possible action when the stem asks for the most appropriate current UK primary-care decision.
Memory anchors
Mental Health: scope
Mood, anxiety, psychosis, trauma, eating disorders, self-harm, suicide risk and medicine monitoring.
Mental Health: primary-care lens
Integrate symptoms, function, risk, physical health, capacity and patient preference into stepped care.
Mental Health: safety boundary
Respond to immediate suicide, self-neglect, violence, psychosis, mania and safeguarding risk.
Mental Health: common trap
Using a screening score as the whole assessment or overlooking physical disease and medicine effects.
Mental Health: AKT decision sequence
Define the exact UK general-practice problem, identify the decisive evidence and safety issue, then choose the most appropriate action for this point in care.
Checkpoint rule
Do the check-up only after you can summarize each concept in one sentence and identify one dangerous pitfall from memory.
Knowledge Check (after reading)
Short check-up to confirm understanding of this module.
Check-up Questions
A patient with depression says, 'My family would be better off without me,' and has bought tablets intending to overdose tonight. What is the best action?
A 31-year-old has elevated mood, needs little sleep, spends recklessly and has grandiose plans for 10 days with major functional disruption. What is most likely?
Answer all questions to submit.
Next step personalized recommendations
Continue learning
Move forward only after this module is stable.
What is Pass Harbor?
Completely free exam prep for 247 UK exams.
- Practice questions
- Flashcards
- Study guides
- Mock exams
- No registration
- No paywall
- Start instantly
“No more expensive exam prep. Quality study tools should be accessible to everyone.”