Instructions: For each of the following cases, first identify the general catego
ID: 3463274 • Letter: I
Question
Instructions: For each of the following cases, first identify the general category of each disorder (e.g., anxiety disorder, mood disorder, personality disorder, dissociative disorder, schizophrenia), and then indicate what the specific diagnosis would be.
1. Reggie is a college freshman who has registered for four classes, but cannot get himself up and out of bed to go to any of them. He feels like a complete failure. He believes he is too stupid to get a college degree, but he does not want to disappoint his family by letting them see what a loser he is. Instead, he just stays in bed all day with the shades drawn. He doesn’t even have enough energy to make himself something to eat, so he is rapidly losing weight.
Disorder: mood disorder Specific diagnosis: There is often sadness, as stated in the case
2. Anastasia, well-prepared for a scheduled quiz, is getting ready to leave her dorm and walk to one of her classes, when she suddenly breaks out in a cold sweat and becomes weak and shaky. She realizes her heart is racing, and is afraid she might be having a heart attack.
Category: Specific diagnosis:
3. Naseem reads the book “Lolita” and suddenly starts having nightmares and flashbacks about her own sexual abuse as a child.
Category: Specific diagnosis:
4. Fourteen-year-old Jarrod has been getting in trouble ever since he was a small child. He has been a petty thief since the age of nine, has been drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana since he was twelve and now goes to school only long enough to bully other students and steal their lunch money.
Category: Specific diagnosis:
5. Walking home after work one night, Gina chanced upon a drug deal turning sour. Guns were drawn and shots were fired. She heard the explosions and the whiz of bullets, saw a man fall bleeding to the ground, and watched a car race away with squealing tires. She was so shaken after this incident that she quit her job so that she would not have to go to that section of town. She refused to take another night job because she did not want to go out at night. Finally, she found that she could not bear the idea of getting any job because she did not feel safe leaving her apartment at all.
Category: Specific diagnosis:
6. Rafael, one of your new college dorm mates, appeared to be very shy and withdrawn at the beginning of the semester. He seemed sad and lonely but kept to himself and he seemed also to spend a lot of time sleeping. Now, suddenly, he has been transformed. He is the life of the party, carousing all night then dashing off to his classes, with no need at all for sleep. He claims to have a system for “aceing” his classes without doing any studying, but is not able to give any coherent explanation of his system.
Category: Specific diagnosis:
7. You are walking downtown one day, when you see a homeless man sitting on the street with a cup next to him and a sign that says, “I’m Joe. I’m homeless and hungry. Please help.” You put some coins in his cup and continue on your way. Several weeks later, at the same location, you see a man that looks like Joe, but younger and more energetic, hurrying up and down the block saying, “I’m Henry and I’ve been saved. Bless the Lord. Thank you, Jesus.” You realize it is the same man you saw before, but even his voice sounds different.
Category: Specific diagnosis:
8. Sitting in a hospital emergency room to have a cut on your hand stitched, you see a wild, disheveled looking man shouting disjointed words and phrases like, “I am the king…the Lord…. Amen…. Women…. Sex….sextets….sextuplets….”
Category: Specific diagnosis:
9. One of your friends is consistently late for every class, every appointment, even every social get-together, because he cannot leave home without taking an hour-long shower, washing his hands ten times, changing his shirt three times, and locking, unlocking, and relocking the door five times.
Category: Specific diagnosis:
10. Michael is just a mass of symptoms and complaints. Ask him how he is, and he will describe unbearable pain in various parts of his body. He can show you small bruises that he is sure will prove to be cancerous. He will cough lightly and ask if he could possibly have developed lung cancer by inhaling second-hand smoke. He will wonder if you’ve heard anything about this strange new symptom he seems to have whenever he drinks fluids of any sort.
Category: Phobia Specific diagnosis:
Explanation / Answer
I am going to answer the first 4 questions... Since Question 1 is already answered, I will be answering questions 2 -5.
2. Category: Anxiety Disorder-Panic Attack Disorder.
Specific Diagnosis: Panic Attack, as inferred from the symptoms provided, i.e., breaking out in a cold sweat, becoming weak and shaky, a racing heart, feeling that she might have a heart attack.
Panic Attack Disorder is marked by sudden bouts of intense fear and anxiety, accompanied by palpitations, tremors, shaking, sweating, numbness, breathlessness, etc.
3. Category: Anxiety Disorder- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Specific Diagnosis: Nightmares and flashbacks with reference to an earlier traumatic incident, is a manifestation of the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, also known as PTSD.
PTSD is an anxiety disorder because it is accompanied by intense fear, apprehension, nightmares, flashbacks, following some traumatic episode of the past. In Naseem’s case, a present incident (reading the book) has triggered those traumatic memories of the past and has thus led to the occurrence of the symptoms of PTSD.
4. Category: Conduct Disorder
Specific Diagnosis: The symptoms - petty theft, drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, bullying, stealing lunch are typical symptoms of Conduct Disorder.
Conduct Disorder is a childhood/adolescent disorder which is marked by antisocial traits and behaviors, in which children show resistance to order and decorum, show lack of consideration towards rights of others, engage is self-harming activities like drug abuse, along with activities that may harm others as well. They indulge in these activities without any sense of shame or guilt.
5. Category: Anxiety Disorder- Phobia
Specific Diagnosis: Fear that made Gina quit her job, which was then followed by her refusal to get into any other job (as stated in the case). This is a case of phobia.
Phobic Disorders are marked by persistent, irrational fears that make an individual avoid all conditions and situations that may induce those fears. Here, although the origin of Gina’s phobia is an actual fear-evoking situation, the act of generalizing her fear to all possible situations (deciding not to leave her apartment in order to remain safe) is an irrational act. This is typical of what is known as ‘Agoraphobia’.