Depressive Disorder Diagnosis and Assessment

Depressive Disorder Diagnosis and Assessment

Read the following vignette, keeping in mind the importance of knowing symptoms, and their duration and severity:

Christina is a 25-year-old Mexican American woman who has been working as an elementary school teacher since she graduated from college three years ago. Although she does well at her job, she has been feeling low ever since she left college. When she took this teaching position, she had to relocate to a city over four hours away from her family and the house she grew up in. Even though she has made some new friends, Christina still feels disconnected and lonely. She is also concerned about her mother, who has been diagnosed with a serious health condition.
For the past month, Christina has felt much worse. She reports feeling very sad and tired most of the time and is having difficulty concentrating at work. She says that she does not have enough energy to accomplish the things she would like to do. She admits to overeating to “unwind” after school, and is concerned she is sleeping too much on the weekends. She also has very low self-esteem, despite being well-liked at her school and receiving good performance evaluations.
Christina describes her life as “heading nowhere” and says that lately she has felt extremely hopeless. She wonders if she will ever feel as happy as she did when she was in college. She does not have a history of ever feeling worse than this, and is in good health.

Based on the information presented, address the following questions in your discussion post using headings to match content in each bullet point:

1. What depressive disorder diagnosis would you consider assigning to Christina? Describe the process you used for making this decision, including your use of the “Differential Diagnosis by the Trees” from the DSM-5 Handbook of Differential Diagnosis (linked in Resources).
2. Describe how the Beck Depression Inventory-II would aid in making a diagnosis for this client. (See pages 62–63 of Abnormal Psychology).
3. What Z code or codes would you consider for Christina? How would including these systemic considerations help you understand Christina’s presenting symptoms and consider your treatment approach?

Support your ideas with references to the course texts, articles from this learning unit, articles from the optional resources on the course syllabus, or articles from peer-reviewed journals that you locate in the Capella University Library.

Response Guidelines

Respond to the initial discussion post of one other learner. What reactions do you have to the ideas the learner has presented? Include examples from your own experience to support your perspective, and raise questions to continue the dialogue.

Learning Components

This activity will help you achieve the following learning components:

• Consider the role of assessment tools to clarify presenting symptoms.
• Identify presenting problems from a client’s perspective.
• Explore assessment tools that collect information relevant to identifying systemic issues.
• Use language appropriate for a counseling professional.
• Cite and reference resources, giving appropriate credit for another’s work.

Resources

• Discussion Participation Scoring Guide.
• Capella University Library.
• Differential Diagnosis by the Trees.