Question

Handout 14-F

Diagnosing Disorders

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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.

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:                                              Specific diagnosis:

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:

Naseem reads the book “Lolita” and suddenly starts having nightmares and flashbacks about her own sexual abuse as a child.

Category:                                             Specific diagnosis:

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:

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:

Handout 14-F (Continued)

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:                                             Specific diagnosis:

Answer 1

Answer

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: Depression

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: Anxiety disorder
• Specific diagnosis: Panic disorder

3. Naseem reads the book “Lolita” and suddenly starts having nightmares and flashbacks about her own sexual abuse as a child.

• Category: Anxiety disorder
• Specific diagnosis: PTSD

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: Personality disorder                                   
• Specific diagnosis: Antisocial personality disorder   

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: Anxiety disorder
• Specific diagnosis: Agoraphobia

6. Handout 14-F (Continued)

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: Mood disorder   
• Specific diagnosis: Bipolar disorder

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: Dissociative disorder   
• Specific diagnosis: Dissociative identity disorder  

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: Schizophrenia   
• Specific diagnosis: Disorganized Schizophrenia

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: Anxiety disorder                                   
• Specific diagnosis: OCD

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: Somatoform disorder      
• Specific diagnosis: Hypochondriasis