Question

Case Study

Allyson is a 43-year-old female who has been married to her husband, Roy, for 12 years and have a 10-year-
old daughter, Rose, between them. Allyson claims that she has been feeling depressed and is seeking a

treatment due to a fear that she would lose everything. She claims she is always sad, tired, and angry and
feels hopeless. For her, everything seems gray. She reports that she lost interest in activities which she was
interested in before, and upset about the fact that she lost interest in raising Rose. According to Allyson, she
first started feeling depressed after she gave birth to Rose. Allyson claims that her doctor did not diagnose
her as experiencing postpartum depression. About 3 weeks later, her mood up lifted again but her symptoms
worsened past year or so. In addition, she claims she experiences abnormal sleep pattern which causes her
to over sleep about 12 hours and 14 hours. She alluded that the onset of the condition was about 7 month
ago and which is considered to be concurrent with depression. Allyson grew up in the family who
experienced and according to her, her mother also experienced depression. She reports that she
has experienced feeling depressed as early as she was 13. However, according to Allyson, her family does
not admit weakness and does not believe in therapy, she did not get proper treatment which may have
worsened her symptoms. Allyson was not a good student at high school and college. She did not go through
any significant traumatizing events such as loss of close people, abuse, bullying and so on. Allison worked
for a telecommunications company for eight years before her marriage to Roy and their moving to New York.
She now works as a consultant while raising Rose. She is financially very stable due to her husband who is a
medical doctor and herself working as a consultant. From her report, though she has been depressed, she
has never been prescribed with medication. In addition, she has never been on any drug or severe
substance use.
• Give a proper diagnostic criterion of this case according to DSM-V
• Write etiology of this case in the light of Psychodynamic Perspective?
• Design a treatment plan for this case according to Psychodynamic Therapeutic techniques?

Answer 1

According to Diagnostic Statistical Manual V,Allyson is suffering from Major Depressive Disorder.

MDD comes under Mood Disorders..The emotional changes comes under mood disorders .Mood disorders are of three types

1.Mania-In this the person is Euphoric-Alevated

2.Biopolor Mood Disorder-combination of both depression and mania

3.Major Depressive Disorder-Negative Mood in which person shows withdrawl symptoms, Decrease in appetite,Loss of interested in pleasurable activities, Thoughts of death and Sucide,Decrease in the amount of sleep.

Etiology from Psychodynamic perspective-

Unresolved past conflicts,past experiences ,Unconscious Negative Thinking,Low morale and Motivation.She was using black and white perspective and thought that everything is negative and grey.

Treatment Plan Includes Psychoanalysis and Dream Interpretation.

Free Association,Transference,Resistance, Dream Analysis,Interpretation