A necessity: I'm afraid I'm a bit of a workaholic, so it would have to be my tri-band mobile phone. I'm always a bit worried about my patients when I'm away, so I tend to rather obsessively ring the hospital.

A lucky charm: The nightmare for doctors when we travel is that you're sitting on the plane and then that announcement comes over the Tannoy: "Is there a doctor on board" So, my lucky charm would have to be my wife, because she's a surgeon. I'm relieved to say that every time we've travelled so far, she's managed to keep that announcement at bay. Of course, one should always take one's wife, anyway.

A luxury: A limited edition Mont Blanc pen, called the Alexandre Dumas. It may seem a little impractical to take a fountain pen, but I do like to make notes about the people I meet, and I keep a journal when I'm travelling.

If only: An up-to-date psychiatric textbook. One of my nasty little habits when I travel is visiting the local psychiatric hospitals. I know that sounds quite sad, but I do find visiting hospitals abroad fascinating because the standard of psychiatry is variable. Quite often, they're doing some kind of horrendous treatment to people which is about 50 years out of date, so I'd take the textbook and leave it with them for future reference.

• Dr Raj Persaud is a consultant psychiatrist at the Maudesley Hospital. The new edition of his book, Staying Sane: How to Make Your Mind Work for You, is published by Bantam in May, priced £7.99.