Depression Case Study

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What is depression? Depression is defined by Staff (2014) as a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. How is depression diagnosed? Diagnosis can be made by first ruling out any underlying health issues. Diagnosis can also be made by asking specific questions and will be determined by the answers to these questions. By understanding what depression is and learning what the proper course of treatment is, depression can be overcome. Choosing the correct treatment is not a one-size fits all solution. Depression can affects your thoughts, feeling and the way you act. You may no longer enjoy the things you once did. You may have a change in appetite or sleep. Symptoms of depression can vary greatly …show more content…

Treatment is more effective the sooner it can be started. Seeking a doctor’s advice on depression symptoms is the best place to start. Your doctor can order blood work and perform a physical. Some symptoms presented could be related to a different issue such as thyroid issues or a viral illness such as Mononucleosis. If these tests come back normal, more testing can be done. A Beck Anxiety Scale and a Patient Health Questionnaire-9 can be filled out by the patient. Elliott, Smith, & Beck (2005) includes the Beck Anxiety Scale which is a series of 21 multiple-choice, self-reported inventory used to measure the severity of a patient’s level of anxiety. Answering questions regarding how the potential depression patient has been feeling for the past one to two weeks will give insight to the doctor on where to go next. Patient Health Questionnaire (2015) gives us either a 9 question form or a simple 2 question form. Most clinicians prefer the PHQ-9 which gives a little more information about how the patient has been feeling for the last 2 weeks and includes a question asking how difficult the problems have made it for the patient to do his work, get along with other people, or take care of things at home. Testing for depression can also be done by a mental health professional. This professional can discuss family history, get a complete list of your symptoms and how long they’ve been going on, whether or not this is your first occurrence, ask if you are using drugs or alcohol, and if you are thinking of hurting yourself or

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