Initial Diagnostic Case – For Practice
Edgar is a 25-year-old married man who is being hospitalized after a suicide attempt that resulted in a car crash into a lake. He has been having a depressive episode for the past six months. This is the first episode he has experienced and it has several characteristics including feelings of depression, loss of interest, weight loss, hypersomnia, poor concentration and thoughts of suicide. His casual daily drinking of 1 or 2 beers per day has increased to five to eight per day in the last two months, which is aggravating his problems. He has no evidence of psychosis but his mood is severe. He has no medical conditions that are known at this time. His relationship with his wife is being compromised …show more content…
Briefly describe the decision-making steps or process you used to arrive at your diagnosis or diagnoses of Edgar.
My decision process was based on reading the case study and highlighting the individual elements that would be a cause for concern. I then matched them up with the symptom in the DSM-5 (APA, 2013). I read through each symptom and made sure the client matched the symptoms. I then put them in order of the primary diagnosis and the other factors. What did you find easy or difficult about this task at your current level of training in diagnostics?
This assignment was very intimidating to me. I had a very hard time starting, even though I had done the reading. I have both the online DSM-5 and the paperbound book, thinking I will want to refer to it moving forward in my studies. The book is very information dense; every sentence has a lot of information. The actual physical book is a diagnostic manual and I found that intimidating. I have tackled new things in the past, and feel sure I can overcome my apprehension, but with this only being my 4th class in my coursework. The fleshing out of my studies into a career is more apparent. I still have a lot of growth ahead of me and becoming very familiar with this manual will be part of that
Edgar is a 25-year-old married man who is being hospitalized after a suicide attempt that resulted in a car crash into a lake. He has been having a depressive episode for the past six months. This is the first episode he has experienced and it has several characteristics including feelings of depression, loss of interest, weight loss, hypersomnia, poor concentration and thoughts of suicide. His casual daily drinking of 1 or 2 beers per day has increased to five to eight per day in the last two months, which is aggravating his problems. He has no evidence of psychosis but his mood is severe. He has no medical conditions that are known at this time. His relationship with his wife is being compromised …show more content…
Briefly describe the decision-making steps or process you used to arrive at your diagnosis or diagnoses of Edgar.
My decision process was based on reading the case study and highlighting the individual elements that would be a cause for concern. I then matched them up with the symptom in the DSM-5 (APA, 2013). I read through each symptom and made sure the client matched the symptoms. I then put them in order of the primary diagnosis and the other factors. What did you find easy or difficult about this task at your current level of training in diagnostics?
This assignment was very intimidating to me. I had a very hard time starting, even though I had done the reading. I have both the online DSM-5 and the paperbound book, thinking I will want to refer to it moving forward in my studies. The book is very information dense; every sentence has a lot of information. The actual physical book is a diagnostic manual and I found that intimidating. I have tackled new things in the past, and feel sure I can overcome my apprehension, but with this only being my 4th class in my coursework. The fleshing out of my studies into a career is more apparent. I still have a lot of growth ahead of me and becoming very familiar with this manual will be part of that