Clinical Flashcards

A client with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder has been avoiding touching doorknobs due to contamination fears. The MOST evidence-based treatment approach is:

Answer: Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)

Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is the gold-standard behavioral treatment for OCD, involving systematic exposure to feared stimuli while refraining from compulsions.

A social worker is seeing a client who abruptly stops a long-term antidepressant. The client reports flu-like symptoms, dizziness, and electric shock sensations. This is most consistent with:

Answer: Antidepressant discontinuation syndrome

Antidepressant discontinuation syndrome occurs after abrupt cessation of certain antidepressants and includes flu-like symptoms, dizziness, and paresthesias often described as 'brain zaps.'

Which attachment style in adults is characterized by discomfort with closeness, self-reliance, and dismissiveness of the importance of relationships?

Answer: Dismissive-avoidant

Dismissive-avoidant attachment involves minimizing the importance of relationships, valuing self-sufficiency, and feeling uncomfortable with emotional closeness.

A 35-year-old client presents with grandiosity, racing thoughts, decreased need for sleep, and has spent his life savings in 3 days. Which diagnosis is MOST likely?

Answer: Manic episode

A manic episode includes elevated or irritable mood plus three or more symptoms such as grandiosity, decreased sleep, and reckless behavior lasting at least one week.

A social worker is legally required to break confidentiality without client consent when:

Answer: A client makes a credible threat to harm an identifiable third party

The Tarasoff duty requires clinicians to protect identifiable third parties from credible threats made by clients, which may include warning the potential victim or law enforcement.

In cognitive behavioral therapy, a client who believes 'If I make any mistake, I am a total failure' is demonstrating which cognitive distortion?

Answer: All-or-nothing thinking

All-or-nothing (black-and-white) thinking involves viewing situations in absolute, binary terms with no middle ground, such as equating any mistake with total failure.

A social worker is conducting a suicide risk assessment. Which factor would be considered MOST indicative of HIGH lethality?

Answer: History of a previous high-lethality attempt

A prior high-lethality suicide attempt is one of the strongest predictors of future completed suicide and indicates significantly elevated risk.