Depressive and Mood Disorders
For this assignment, you will provide a diagnosis of a client vignette (see week 3 vignette), describe the current evidence regarding the causes and prevalence of the diagnosis, and briefly explain the current treatment recommendations, including individual therapy, family/couple therapy, and medications.
- Diagnosis and Supporting Evidence – Develop an accurate diagnosis using the DSM-5 criteria listed for the disorders studied. Support the diagnosis by writing a description of the symptoms and related information from the vignette that substantiates your conclusions. While developing your argument to support the provided diagnosis, specifically address each of the criteria and include an example of how the client fits the criteria. If there is a rule-out diagnosis, please highlight the ways in which the client does not fit a rule-out diagnosis based on the criteria.
- Description of the Disorder –Briefly describe the possible causes (genetics, biological basis), course, and effects of the disorder. Please address the impact of the diagnosis on a client’s family members or significant others. Many psychiatric conditions have a genetic basis and family history; therefore, dynamics are very important to consider.
Depressive and Mood Disorders
- Cultural Considerations and Implications: Provide a paragraph description in which you briefly comment on each component of Garcia and Petrovitch’s (2015) Diversity/Resilience formulation (see Week 1 readings): Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Community, and Spiritual. How is each of these illustrated in the client vignette?
- Treatments – Based on the readings and other outside information, please outline the best current evidence regarding treatment of the condition you diagnosed. Be sure to address each of the following:
- Medications: What are the best current medications used to treat this condition? Be specific to identify the drug classes used. You do not need to identify specific medications, but you do need to identify which class of drugs that are commonly used.
- Assessment of Suicide Risk: Describe how you will assess the risk of suicide using a standard assessment (e.g., Columbia Scale). How will you work with the client to develop a safety plan?
- Psychotherapy: What psychotherapy approaches have the best evidence in treating this condition? How do these approaches address the symptoms of the diagnosed condition and improve functioning?
- Family and/or Couple Interventions: Identify which family and/or couple interventions that have the best evidence supporting their use in treating the diagnosed condition. Describe two specific interventions you could implement with this case.
Depressive and Mood Disorders
In your description of the treatments, be sure to continue to integrate information about the case from the vignette (i.e., do not simply discuss what you would do with a person with the given disorder; write about how the model and interventions that you have selected fit with the specific client from the vignette). Do not replicate the vignette in your paper. Simply provide a synopsis of the vignette as you would in a clinical note.
Length: 5-7 pages, not including title and reference pages
References: Include a minimum of three scholarly resources (not including the DSM-5).
References: The assignment must have a minimum of three scholarly references (not including the DSM-5) supporting the points made in the assignment.
Papers must be written in third-person voice. Do not use personal pronouns (I, me, we, you, etc.) Your paper should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University’s Academic Integrity Policy.
