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Psychiatry Neurotic, Stress Related and Somatoform Disorders f6891ccc

A 27 year old nurse had extracurricular interests in trekking and painting. She broke up relationship with her boyfriend. Two months later she lost interest in her hobbies and was convinced that she would not be able to work again. She thought life was not woh living and consumed 60 tablets of phenobarbitone to end her life. She is most likely suffering from:

A
Adjustment disorder
B
Acute stress disorder
C
Depressive disorder
D
Post traumatic stress disorder
High-Yield Explanation
This question has been answered wrongly by most of the guides. Please remember few basic things about adjustment disorder and depression. Adjustment disorder is always seen after a stressful event, which is usually a negative life event. The symptoms of adjustment disorder are quite similar to depression and include depressed mood, anxiety, worry, a feeling of inability to cope and some degree of disturbance in individuals daily functioning. Now, a negative life event can also precipitate the depressive episode. So, the presence of a stressor cannot be used to differentiate between adjustment disorder and depression. If a patient has the symptoms severe enough to qualify the diagnosis of depression, depression would always be diagnosed ahead of adjustment disorder, irrespective of whether there was a stressor or not. In this case patient has the symptoms such as loss of interest, ideas of hopelessness (patient is convinced that she won't be able to work again) and most impoantly suicide attempt, all of which are highly suggestive of depression. Hence, the diagnosis would be depressive disorder.

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