Clinical Assessment and Diagnosis Flashcards

A client is diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder with Peripartum Onset. According to DSM-5, when must symptoms begin for this specifier to apply?

Answer: During pregnancy or within 4 weeks of delivery

DSM-5's peripartum onset specifier applies when a major depressive episode begins during pregnancy or within 4 weeks after delivery.

Which of the following best differentiates Social Anxiety Disorder from Avoidant Personality Disorder in assessment?

Answer: Social Anxiety Disorder may be situationally triggered while AvPD is ego-syntonic and pervasive

Social Anxiety Disorder is often situational (e.g., public speaking) while Avoidant Personality Disorder involves a pervasive, ego-syntonic pattern of social inhibition and feelings of inadequacy across contexts.

A social worker is reviewing a client's history and notes repeated episodes of elevated mood, decreased need for sleep, and grandiosity lasting 4 days, not requiring hospitalization. These episodes alternate with depression. The most likely diagnosis is:

Answer: Bipolar II Disorder

Bipolar II Disorder is characterized by at least one hypomanic episode (4+ days, not requiring hospitalization) and at least one major depressive episode.

An adolescent client avoids school due to fear of embarrassment but has no difficulty with other social or performance situations. This pattern most closely aligns with:

Answer: Social Anxiety Disorder, performance only specifier

When social anxiety is confined to performance situations like speaking or performing in front of others, DSM-5 allows for a 'performance only' specifier.

A client with ADHD reports that symptoms have been present since childhood but were not formally diagnosed. For a DSM-5 ADHD diagnosis in adults, symptoms must have been present before what age?

Answer: Age 12

DSM-5 raised the age of onset criterion for ADHD from age 7 (DSM-IV) to age 12, requiring that several inattentive or hyperactive symptoms were present before that age.

A social worker conducts an initial assessment and uses the PIE (Person-in-Environment) system. What is the PRIMARY advantage of using PIE in social work assessment?

Answer: It captures both social role functioning problems and environmental factors alongside mental health

The PIE system uniquely incorporates social role functioning and environmental problems alongside mental health factors, aligning with social work's ecological perspective.

A client with a history of trauma reports that they sometimes feel detached from their own body and experience the world as unreal. This symptom is best described as:

Answer: Derealization/depersonalization

Depersonalization refers to feeling detached from oneself, while derealization involves experiencing the external world as unreal; both can occur together in Depersonalization/Derealization Disorder and in trauma responses.