Diagnosis and Treatment Plan Essay

Total Length: 600 words ( 2 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 4

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Symptoms, Duration, Severity, and Precipitant Factors

Pat Solitano was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for 8 months. This was after he nearly beat to death a man he had found his wife, Nikki, cheating with. Pat is around 30 years old and is a Caucasian man who is living provisionally with Bipolar Disorder. On being released from the hospital after the eighth month, Pat went to live with his parents, Dolores and Pat Sr (Russell, Elfman & Gigliotti, 2012). On discovering his wife cheating with another man, a fight ensued and the man the wife was cheating with almost died. A week earlier, prior to the incident, Pat had called the police as he believed that the man and his wife were involved in a conspiracy to embezzle money from a local school. After going through 8 months of inpatient treatment at a psychiatric hospital, he was released to the care of his parents (Coooper & Lawrence, 2013). The doctors were not for Pat’s release but a court order established that his condition was stable provided that pat complied with a restraining order that his wife had put in place and that he was medicine compliant and attended prescribed therapy sessions. Patrick is focused on winning back Nikki.

If a manic episode arises in the course of an antidepressant treatment, which can include electroconvulsive therapy and medication, and persists beyond what would be reasonably considered as a natural effect of the treatment procedure, it is enough evidence for a bipolar I diagnosis. In bipolar diagnosis, manic episodes constitute criteria A-D. For one to be diagnosed with bipolar I disorder, they must have had at least one manic episode over the course of their life.

Provide a Complete Multi-Axial Diagnosis

In its rating and evaluation of patients, DSM utilizes five distinct axes. Axis I has clinical disorders such as anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, and depression and avails information about such disorders. Mental health conditions, save for mental retardation and personality disorders, fall under the Axis I umbrella. Axis II covers developmental and personality disorders and avails information about such disorders (Frances, First & Pincus, 1995). Axis III covers medical conditions such as medical disorders and conditions arising due to physical injuries to the brain. It avails information on preexisting conditions that might have an impact on the mental disorder of a patient or how the disorder is managed. Axis IV describes environmental and psychosocial factors impacting an individual and mainly covers environmental and physical conditions (Frances et al., 1995; Walsh, 2016). The last one, Axis V, generally assesses functioning using a rating scale running from 0 to 100 that is usually referred to as the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF). GAF provides a means to use specific numbers to rate how well an individual is functioning.

For an episode to be considered a manic episode there has to be a distinct time period of not less than one week that is characterized by expansive, irritable, and elevated mood that is persistently and abnormally oriented at a specific activity or activities and that the situation is persistent almost every day for most of the time. At least three of the following symptoms are taken to be a pointer of a problem when there is an episode of increased activity or energy, or four symptoms if the only apparent change is mood irritability:

• Grandiosity or an inflated sense of self-worth or esteem.

• Less need to sleep. For instance, one may feel fully rested on less than 4 hours of sleep.


• Increased need to keep talking hence once becomes unusually talkative.

• Constant ideation as thoughts race through the mind.

• Easily distracted as attention is grabbed easily by irrelevant environmental stimuli.

• An increase in goal-oriented activity at school, work, household, or at the community level.

• An increase in activities that have high economic, social, or health costs such as uncontrolled shopping sprees, unhindered sexual indulgences, or irrational business undertakings.

• Severe mood changes to an extent that work, familial, or social obligations cannot be effectively met or where mood changes so much that the person has to be hospitalized so that they do not cause any harm to others or self.

• Where the episode cannot be attributed to the effects of a different medical condition or the effects that accrue from using state-altering substances such as medication…

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…order established that his condition was stable provided that pat complied with a restraining order that his wife had put in place and that he was medicine compliant and attended prescribed therapy sessions. Patrick is focused on winning back Nikki.

If a manic episode arises in the course of an antidepressant treatment, which can include electroconvulsive therapy and medication, and persists beyond what would be reasonably considered as a natural effect of the treatment procedure, it is enough evidence for a bipolar I diagnosis. In bipolar diagnosis, manic episodes constitute criteria A-D. For one to be diagnosed with bipolar I disorder, they must have had at least one manic episode over the course of their life.

Provide a Complete Multi-Axial Diagnosis

In its rating and evaluation of patients, DSM utilizes five distinct axes. Axis I has clinical disorders such as anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, and depression and avails information about such disorders. Mental health conditions, save for mental retardation and personality disorders, fall under the Axis I umbrella. Axis II covers developmental and personality disorders and avails information about such disorders (Frances, First & Pincus, 1995). Axis III covers medical conditions such as medical disorders and conditions arising due to physical injuries to the brain. It avails information on preexisting conditions that might have an impact on the mental disorder of a patient or how the disorder is managed. Axis IV describes environmental and psychosocial factors impacting an individual and mainly covers environmental and physical conditions (Frances et al., 1995; Walsh, 2016). The last one, Axis V, generally assesses functioning using a rating scale running from 0 to 100 that is usually referred to as the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF). GAF provides a means to use specific numbers to rate how well an individual is functioning.

For an episode to be considered a manic episode there has to be a distinct time period of not less than one week that is characterized by expansive, irritable, and elevated mood that is persistently and abnormally oriented at a specific activity or activities and that the situation is persistent almost every day for most of the time. At least three of the following symptoms are taken to be a….....

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