Psychiatric Diagnoses

Psychiatry is a type of science that involves mental illnesses and diagnosing the patient's’ mental, and sometimes physical, health. Psychiatrists are doctors that are trained to diagnose mental illnesses, and spot mental, emotional and behavioral symptoms. They work with their patients, listening to their stories, and performing tests in order to find out what, if any, mental illnesses or cognitive disorders. The median annual salary for a psychiatrist is around $200,000.

31 y/o AA male patient seen today for psychiatric-mental health assessment. He is awake, alert and oriented x4. He is calm, cooperative and follows commands during assessment. The patient reports he is depressed, difficulty sleeping and nightmares at night. The patient explained his depression is as a result of deep thinking from a news he received two days ago from his elder brother that his mother is ill. Stressors identified by the patient include losing his job a week ago before the news about his mother; his wife is 6-months pregnant with their first child, who currently works part-time at her present job; patient relates difficulty paying monthly bills and inability to provide adequately for his family as a man. The patient denies mood swings, suicidal/homicidal thoughts and ideation. Patient reports his spouse is at work at the moment and he does not want to put stress on his wife due to her current condition. Patient denies been hospitalized for depression or psychiatric illness; and denies family history of mental illness. Patient reports he is seeking help because he does not like feeling this way using terms of “helpless and loss of worth from his spouse”. Patient reports he needs help with his depression and nightmares before his current condition get out of hands and ruined his marriage.

Describe the main types of mental ill health according to the psychiatric (DSM/ICD) classification system: mood disorders, personality disorders, anxiety disorders, psychotic disorders, substance-related disorders, eating disorders, cognitive disorders?

Explain the key strengths and limitations of the psychiatric classification system. Strengths of Psychiatric Classification and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders include that it provides a well designed standard, and comprehensive diagnostic tool for clinicians and it allows physicians to look at the complete psychological make-up of a person.

I am writing you in regards to my psychiatric evaluation of the above-named individual, conducted at Sweetwater Home Board and Care on November 5, 2012.

For my secondary research I used the website city-data.com and typed in the area code 32082, Palm Valley, Florida. I chose this area because there is a greater number of older residents living in that area. Although my clinic will be available for all populations a greater emphasis will be placed on the helping the elderly. However, the current median age is 48 years old but compared to other numbers the amount of elderly is extremely large (~5,834 people). There are around 30,000 people living in that area with the median household income over the state average estimated at $87,878. There is also a higher percentage of people in that area with a bachelor’s degree (38%). The race in that area is mostly white (~93%), Hispanics (~3%), Asian (~1.6%), and (~1%)

Currently, The population of elderly are estimated to be increasing in number (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2014). The government is concerning about the pressure being placed on public resources as the result of aging population. The aging populations can be vulnerable to different acute and chronic disorder, which can decrease their mortality rate. This can stifle patients’ normal living pattern, which can lead to the vulnerability of experiencing moods disorder, such as depression and anxiety (Potvin et al., 2013). This will lead to the increase

Schizophrenia is a disease of the brain and is known as one of the most disabling

Mental illnesses have been recognized and acknowledged for thousands of years, but the way they had once been treated and handled differ from the way they are dealt with today. There was a point in time where all mental illnesses were thought of as one and they were treated in a similar way. Many theories were associated with the cause of these mental disorders and many of them today are deemed as obnoxious.

Mental disorders such as schizophrenia are feared because they are so misunderstood. Illness such as theses also have a negative stigma associated with them. People believe the disease is in the patients head or there are no treatments for how someone thinks. However, in the case of schizophrenia, many researchers would disagree. Researchers argue that schizophrenia is a brain disorder with brain abnormalities, neurotransmitter differences, and genetic influences. In fact, strong evidence shows schizophrenia develops in the womb.

Another weakness and debate about the DSM is that it is an unscientific system and it is the opinion of a few powerful psychiatrists. This has raised a lot of questions and have caused people to question the validity and reliability of the diagnostic categories as well. The validity and reliability were especially questioned after the Rosenhan experiment in the 1970s in which it was concluded that the sane could not be distinguished from the insane in psychiatric hospitals. Thus, even though the reliability and validity has improved now when compared to the 1970s, it is still a weakness which I believe could not be entirely fixed. However, validity problems of the diagnostic criteria especially arise when children or adolescents are involved. For

In the book Opening Skinner’s Box, the author, Lauren Slater narrates a famous experiment conducted by David Rosenhan, an American psychologist. This experiment was conducted to determine the validity of psychiatric diagnoses. Moreover, this experiment is considered highly influential and criticized by many psychiatrists because Rosenhan wanted to prove if sanity was able to be distinguished from insanity at mental hospitals. Rosenhan also wanted to prove the reliability in doctor’s diagnoses as well as adequate treatments to provide to mental ill patients. In the experiment pseudpatients were admitted into the hospital because they briefly explained to be suffering from auditory hallucinations. It is important to point out that all the patients were diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder even after they informed the staff to no longer be having auditory hallucinations. It is extremely important to have an accurate mental diagnose in order for patients to find their full potential in life, work productively and make good contribution to their families, and society. In the quest for the well state of sanity, Rosenhan made a big contribution to future generation of psychiatrics and mental ill patients for this reason is important to fully understand the meaning of sanity in a mental hospital.

I chose this term due to the fact that psychosomatic illnesses refer to illnesses that affect the mind and the body. So I think choosing the term Mind & Body simplifies/clarifies, and also makes the definition more easily for people to understand. Every disease comes with some sort of mental aspect attached to it, and then with some mental disorders that manifest physical system such as anorexia. So when treating psychosomatic diseases the health workers or mental health workers must look at a patient overall status when treating diseases. For example if a patient has been diagnosed with cancer the health provider might prescribe drugs that ease stress and anxiety for the

When talking about all the different areas of mental illness, and society there is one main thing in common; no matter what is written down in the books it constantly changes and is different all over the world: in different cultures, different aspects are seen differently and what people in society may view as normal, statistics mostly show that many things are abnormal, yet they lack the boundary's of what normality and abnormality is, throughout all of the information there is a constant battle of what people actually call normal and how to tell when it changes to become abnormal.

There is no doubt that psychological testing help to diagnose mental illnesses and to recognize educational deficiencies to better address them in turn. However, we should always be aware of social issues that might arise due to their implementation. A particular concern regarding assessment and tests at school are its usefulness. Assumptions underlying several tests of nowadays might be fundamentally wrong and instruments resulting test far from being correct. Nevertheless, tests may still be valuable as long as they offer information that leads to better predictions and comprehension that cannot otherwise be attained.