Mood Disorders
A 28-year-old has experienced two weeks of depressed mood nearly every day, markedly diminished interest in activities, fatigue, feelings of worthlessness, and difficulty concentrating. There is no history of a manic or hypomanic episode. What diagnosis is most likely given the symptoms?
What is Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)?
For more than six months, a person has experienced persistent delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and significant decline in occupational functioning. What is the most likely diagnosis?
What is Schizophrenia?
A person has a longstanding pattern of instability in relationships, self-image, and emotions. They fear abandonment and engage in recurrent suicidal behavior or self-injury. Which diagnosis is most likely?
What is Borderline Personality Disorder?
After experiencing a traumatic event, a person repeatedly has involuntary distressing memories and nightmares about the event, avoids reminders of it, and experiences persistent hypervigilance. Symptoms have lasted more than one month. Which diagnosis is most likely?
What is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)?
A person reports hearing a voice when no one is present. The experience is perceived as coming from outside themselves rather than being recognized as their own thoughts. What symptom might this be?
What is an auditory hallucination?
A person has recurrent episodes of major depression and has also experienced several periods of elevated mood, increased energy, decreased need for sleep, and increased talkativeness lasting at least four consecutive days. The elevated episodes have never caused marked impairment, required hospitalization, or included psychotic features. What diagnosis is most likely?
What is Bipolar II Disorder?
A person hears voices commenting on their behavior and firmly believes that government agents are monitoring their thoughts. These experiences are examples of which symptom categories?
What are hallucinations and delusions?
A person repeatedly violates the rights of others, lies for personal gain, acts impulsively, and demonstrates little remorse after harming people. Which diagnosis is mosy likely?
What is Antisocial Personality Disorder?
Following a traumatic event, a person develops intrusive memories, dissociative reactions, avoidance, negative mood, and heightened arousal beginning shortly after the event and lasting from three days to one month. Which diagnosis is most likely?
What is Acute Stress Disorder?
A person believes with strong conviction that they have a special relationship with a famous political figure despite having no actual relationship with that person and despite clear evidence to the contrary. What symptom might this be?
What is a delusion?
A 35-year-old experiences a distinct period of abnormally elevated and expansive mood accompanied by decreased need for sleep, pressured speech, racing thoughts, increased goal-directed activity, and excessive involvement in risky activities. The episode results in hospitalization. What diagnosis is most likely?
What is Bipolar I Disorder?
A person frequently derails conversations, jumping from one topic to another and giving answers that are difficult to follow. Which symptom does this best describe?
What is disorganized speech?
A person has an exaggerated sense of self-importance, requires excessive admiration, and demonstrates a longstanding pattern of grandiosity and impaired empathy.
What is Narcissistic Personality Disorder?
A person who survived a serious accident becomes extremely distressed whenever they see a vehicle resembling the one involved. They deliberately avoid driving and refuse to ride in cars. Which category of symptoms best explains this?
What are trauma-related avoidance symptoms?
A person experiences a period of abnormally elevated mood, increased energy, decreased need for sleep, grandiosity, and excessive goal-directed activity, but the episode does not meet the duration or severity requirements for mania. What might this person be experiencing?
What is hypomania?
During a depressive episode, a person reports that they can no longer experience pleasure from activities they previously enjoyed. What symptom does this describe?
What is anhedonia - impaired ability to feel pleasure from things that normally bring joy.
A person experiences a period of prominent symptoms of psychosis (i.e., delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech) while also experiencing a major depressive episode. At another point, they experience psychosis for at least two weeks in the absence of a major mood episode. Which diagnosis is most likely?
What is Schizoaffective Disorder?
A person is intensely uncomfortable when they are not the center of attention, uses their appearance to draw attention to themselves, and displays rapidly shifting and shallow emotional expression. Which diagnosis is most likely?
What is Histrionic Personality Disorder?
After a traumatic event, a person suddenly feels as though the event is happening again in the present, despite knowing that they are currently safe. Which symptom category best explains this?
What is a dissociative reaction/flashback?
A person has difficulty recalling important aspects of a traumatic event, experiences persistent negative beliefs about themselves, and feels detached from other people following the trauma. What symptom category might this represent?
What are negative alterations in cognition and mood associated with PTSD?
A person with a history of bipolar disorder sleeps only three hours a night but reports feeling completely rested, talks much more rapidly than usual, and begins several ambitious projects simultaneously. What symptom does this describe?
What is decreased need for sleep?
After developing schizophrenia, a person becomes increasingly socially withdrawn, speaks very little, shows little emotional expression, and loses motivation to pursue previously valued activities. What symptom category are they most likely experiencing?
What are negative symptoms?
A person alternates between idealizing someone as perfect and viewing that same person as completely worthless after a perceived rejection. This pattern is particularly characteristic of which Cluster B disorder?
What is Borderline Personality Disorder?
Several weeks after a traumatic event, a person becomes persistently watchful for danger, is easily startled, has difficulty sleeping, and becomes increasingly irritable. Which symptom category best explains this?
What are alterations in arousal and reactivity associated with PTSD?
A person repeatedly engages in impulsive behavior that could have harmful consequences, such as reckless spending, unsafe sexual behavior, or substance misuse, particularly during a period of elevated mood. What symptom category might this represent?
What is impulsivity/risky behavior associated with a manic or hypomanic episode?