USMLE Step 2 CK Psychiatry Practice Questions
Psychiatry items turn on duration thresholds, functional impairment and ruling out a medical or substance-induced cause. Generate unlimited psychiatry blocks with full rationales that explain why the close-call option is wrong.
Start a psychiatry blockWhy psychiatry is worth drilling
Blueprint
Named exam category
8
High-yield areas
Criteria
Learnable thresholds
Psychiatric vignettes show up far beyond the psychiatry block — delirium on a medical floor, withdrawal after surgery, postpartum mood disorders in obstetrics. Because the diagnostic criteria are explicit and finite, these are highly recoverable points once you have drilled the timelines and the drug side-effect profiles.
High-yield topics covered
Use any of these as a custom topic — ask for “10 questions on alcohol withdrawal” and get a fresh set built on the spot.
Mood Disorders
- Major depressive disorder: duration, severity, first-line SSRIs
- Bipolar I vs II, mania vs hypomania
- Persistent depressive disorder and adjustment disorder
- Postpartum blues, depression and psychosis
Psychotic Disorders
- Brief psychotic, schizophreniform, schizophrenia timelines
- Schizoaffective vs mood disorder with psychotic features
- Positive vs negative symptoms and prognosis
- First-episode workup and medical mimics
Anxiety, OCD & Trauma
- Panic disorder, GAD, social and specific phobia
- OCD and body dysmorphic disorder
- Acute stress disorder vs PTSD by duration
- Exposure-based CBT and SSRI dosing differences
Substance Use
- Alcohol withdrawal timeline and CIWA-guided benzodiazepines
- Opioid intoxication, withdrawal, buprenorphine and naloxone
- Stimulant, cannabis and hallucinogen presentations
- Wernicke encephalopathy and thiamine before glucose
Cognitive & Neuropsychiatric
- Delirium vs dementia vs depression (pseudodementia)
- Precipitants of delirium and non-pharmacologic first steps
- Dementia subtypes and behavioral symptom management
- Neurologic disease with psychiatric presentation
Psychopharmacology
- SSRI, SNRI, bupropion, mirtazapine adverse-effect profiles
- Lithium and valproate monitoring and toxicity
- Typical vs atypical antipsychotics, EPS and metabolic effects
- Serotonin syndrome vs neuroleptic malignant syndrome
Suicide & Safety
- Risk factors, protective factors and risk stratification
- Voluntary vs involuntary hospitalization criteria
- Assessing means, intent and plan in the stem
- Managing agitation and restraint decisions
Eating, Somatic & Personality
- Anorexia, bulimia, binge-eating and refeeding syndrome
- Somatic symptom, illness anxiety, conversion and factitious disorder
- Malingering vs factitious disorder
- Cluster A/B/C personality patterns and therapeutic response
How to reason through a psychiatry question
- Count the weeks. Two weeks, one month, six months — most mood, psychotic and trauma disorders are separated by duration alone, and the stem always tells you.
- Rule out the medical mimic. New psychosis, sudden anxiety or acute confusion should push you toward thyroid studies, a toxicology screen or a delirium workup before a primary psychiatric label.
- Ask about safety first. When suicidal or homicidal content appears, assessing intent, plan and means usually outranks starting a medication.
- Match drug to adverse effect. Many items are really pharmacology: weight gain, QT prolongation, sexual side effects, tremor or rigidity point at a specific agent.
- Redo your incorrects. Rebuild a set from only your missed psychiatry items to confirm the criteria actually stuck.
Fit it into your schedule
Psychiatry pairs well with any clinical block. Drill it alongside internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics and ethics, follow the 6-week and 10-week study plans, and learn the reasoning steps for questions you don’t know.
Frequently asked questions
How much psychiatry is on Step 2 CK?
Psychiatry and behavioral health are a named blueprint category, and psychiatric items also appear inside medicine, pediatrics and obstetrics vignettes.
Which psychiatry topics are highest yield?
Mood and psychotic disorders, anxiety and PTSD, substance intoxication and withdrawal, delirium versus dementia, eating disorders, suicide risk assessment and first-line psychopharmacology.
Why do I miss these even when I know the criteria?
The question usually asks for the next best step, not the diagnosis — safety assessment, excluding a medical or substance-induced cause, or the correct first-line agent.
Are these practice questions free?
Yes — unlimited psychiatry questions with full rationales are free during the current beta.
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