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Clinical Case Study #2 Description of Patient: Sarah came to our clinic with mixed feelings about whether she needed help

Psychology

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Clinical Case Study #2

Description of Patient:

Sarah came to our clinic with mixed feelings about whether she needed help.  On the one hand, she had been experiencing deep feelings of sadness accompanied by fatigue, irritability, and difficulty paying attention for several years now.  On the other hand, she would sometimes experience periods of time in which she felt great excitement, motivation, and confidence.  As she described it, “My life is terrible on some days but incredibly amazing on others.” Although she initially was able to manage her symptoms, they had recently begun to impair her social, home, and work life, which motivated her to come into the clinic.  Indeed, she became so impulsive during one emotional high that she gambled away the majority of the money in her bank account.   During another, she had physically attacked her husband over his objection to her increasingly exorbitant spending sprees.  These episodes of extreme excitability and euphoria were among the most intense ever described to us.

 

A clinical interview with Sarah revealed that she had no past history of mental illness.  However, several members of her mother’s family had been diagnosed with depression.  A complete medical exam revealed that Sarah was healthy, though a blood test revealed that she had significantly increased levels of stress hormones in her system.  

 

 

 

Diagnoses/Diagnosis:

 

 

 

 

Biopsychosocial model of causality:

           

            Biological factors:

 

 

 

 

            Psychological factors:

 

 

           

Prescribed psychological treatment:

 

 

 

 

Prescribed pharmacological treatment: