Adjustment disorders Flashcards
What might be some common precipitants for adjustment disorders?
Bereavement
Changing schools or jobs
Moving house
Adjustment disorders can occur after traumatic events but in this case it is important to distinguish them from PTSD
How long does a normal grief reaction last?
Should last up to 6 months
How do we distinguish adjustment disorder from PTSD?
PTSD has an acute and severe panic element to it as well as the hyper-arousal and vigilance
What are some more common symptoms of adjustment disorder?
Much less acute than PTSD.
People feel symptoms of anxiety and depression and the inability to cope
What might development in more severe cases of adjustment disorder?
CONDUCT DISORDER
e.g. Reckless driving, truancy and aggressive behaviour
What sort of things might be risk factors for adjustment disorder?
Personality type
Resilience to stress
How is a diagnosis of adjustment disorder made?
The symptoms should have come on within 1 month of the event occurring and last for less than 6 months
IT IS A DIAGNOSIS OF EXCLUSION - consider PTSD, depression and anxiety all first
What is the main treatment for adjustment disorder?
CBT
What is a stressor?
Something that places a strain on the person’s ability to cope - this is relative to the patient
What do we mean when we say traumatic stress?
This is something that would cause a stress reaction in nearly anyone
Pathological reactions to stress can lead to psychiatric conditions. What are some examples of these?
Adjustment disorder
Traumatic stress disorder or PTSD
Dissociative disorder
Other major psychiatric illness such as depression or anxiety
What is dissociative disorder?
Disorder in consciousness, memory, cognition, perception, identity and movement
The awareness and control of movement becomes separate from someone’s personality
What are some types of dissociation?
Depersonalisation (feeling like your body is in some way strange or unreal)
Derealisation (External reality feels strange or unreal)
What are the 7 stages of grief?
Shock Denial Anger Bargaining Depression Testing Acceptance
What characteristics of a bereavement reaction might make you consider it to be abnormal?
Lasting longer than 6 months
Guilt about things OTHER than actions taken/not taken around time of loved ones death
Thoughts of death BEYOND thinking they should be dead instead of loved one
Morbid preoccupation with worthlessness
Marked psychomotor retardation
Prolonged or marked functional impairment
Extensive hallucinatory experiences that extend beyond occasionally seeing or hearing loved one
