Hi! Below is the case study and I want to make sure I'm on theright track. I bolded the questions I'm interested in (1-5).Looking for people who are familiar with the DSM-5/abnormalpsychology and able to answer all questions completely. Thankyou! Detailed answers extremely appreciated!
Questions:
1. Diagnosis; what is the evidence for it?
2. Treatment; typical treatment used for this diagnosisAND most effective treatment. IF the person is in treatment, whatshould we target first in terms of symptoms? How likely are they tostay in treatment and how likely are they to recover? Are medsinvolved and if so, what broad “type†of meds work for thisdisorder,?
3. Differential diagnosis (why is itthis disorder and not this disorder)
4. Does the person have more than one diagnosis, whatwould DSM say about the criteria for diagnosing that
5. What would the primary causal theoriesbe?
CASE STUDY:
Paul is a 30 year old engineer who is quite successful and livesin New York with his girlfriend. He normally loves his life, butover the past four or five months he just can’t seem to get excitedor happy about anything. He has a lot of work issues - the companywas sold and the owners, who were his friends, pretty well justtook the money and ran - leaving all the employees (including Paul)in chaos (with the new owners) .Paul is now very unhappy at workand most of the other employees (all of his friends) have left fornew jobs, but Paul just can’t seem to get his act together to evenlook for a new job. His girlfriend notes that he is moody,irritable and always tired, he never wants to go out and he hasstopped exercising and stopped pretty well all of his fun hobbiesor activities. He does not even enjoy taking his dog out for awalk, and his dog was always his favorite thing in the world (nextto his girlfriend). Mostly Paul just seems to sit around on thecouch watching television and doing nothing when he is not at work.He does not drink or do drugs, but he does not eat healthy either.He has gained 20 pounds is six months and he does not really care.He says that he often thinks that he would be better off dead.Medically he is fine and he has tons of money and lots of friendswho care about him and he even has a great family who are infrequent contact with him. His girlfriend is concerned, as is hisfamily, as Paul does not seem to be “snapping out of itâ€. They sendhim to a psychologist to try to figure out what is wrong (hismedical doctor said there were no medical problems evident).
