Making a Differential Diagnosis

Psychiatric disorders are the medical conditions that affect the patient’s mental state or

the functioning of the brain. There are several psychiatric conditions and they affect the patients

differently one of the main ones is the anxiety disorder. The psychiatric disorder is a mental

health condition that is normally characterised with and some kind of fear that is so strong to the

point of affecting an individual’s way of thinking in the daily activities. This disorder can relate

quite easily to the symptoms identified in the diagnostic manual as the person’s state way of

thinking changes generally and the individual is not in a position to make sound decisions. The

manual has outlined the symptoms like stress, the patient not being able to set aside worry in

whatever condition (Musante & Ropers, 2014).

The diagnostic for this condition involves looking out for the open symptoms like

uncontrollable stress level. The nurse of the medical practitioner attending to the patient may

also try to interrogate the patient to find out if they can reason out issues with a composed or

simply a sober mind. In the case of the analytical diagnosis it is quite apparent the manner the

patient was acting in relation to the various symptoms of the disorder. The diagnosis manual has

outlined some main symptoms of this disorder like abnormal level of stress, and significant level

of worry as they respond to the diagnosis process. There are several symptoms that have been

outlined in this diagnostic manual. There was some diagnostic that were outlined in this manual

like the restlessness.

The particular diagnostic manual that was outlined in case was the most appropriate one

for this condition and it was focusing on the main symptoms of the disorder making it quite easy

to distinct or single out the disorder from other similar mental conditions. There is some specific

diagnostic manual that seem to be so general and would make it quite challenging for one to

relate to the disorder and so would be confusing (Anttila, Bulik-Sullivan, Finucane, Walters,

Bras, Duncan & Patsopoulos, 2018).

When it comes to summarizing the diagnosis to critically outline the theoretical

orientation is quite critical and the historical perspective. There are several psychiatric disorders

that have related or similar symptoms and may be quite confusing. It is therefore important to

include the theoretical and historical perspectives to try and clear any cases of doubt in the

condition. This is a theoretical orientation and the historical perspective which are normally

specific to the disorder. These conditions are sometimes passed genetically and so looking into

the history to verify the condition and to clear any cases of doubt (Hughes, 2017).

The symptoms can as well be evaluated in the appropriate theoretical orientation for the

diagnosis. The theoretical dimension helps us to elaborate the various aspects of the symptoms

and what makes it different from some other similar disorders. Theoretical reasoning helps to

explain the main reasoning or the main symptoms that differentiate the disorder from others (Lader, 2015).

This is a mental disorder whose causes are inclined to several factors like biological,

psychological and social among others. It is quite important to come up with some factors that

relate to the risk factors that may make the individual vulnerable. The psychological factors seem

to be the factors that make an individual prone to suffer this disorder. The biological factors are

also another set of significant risk factors and have implication on an individual’s chances of

suffering from this disorder (Beck, Emery & Greenberg, 2016).

This disorder can actually be treated and the difference comes in when the treatment is

evidence based and when the non-evidence based approaches are followed. This is a health

condition that affects the patient handles psychological issues like reasoning and managing

stress. When the evidence based approach is followed in the treatment the response seems quite

well and faster as compared to the non-evidence based treatment.

References

Musante, L., & Ropers, H. H. (2014). Genetics of recessive cognitive disorders. Trends in Genetics, 30(1), 32-39.

Lader, M. (2015). Generalized anxiety disorder. Encyclopedia of psychopharmacology, 699-702.

Beck, A. T., Emery, G., & Greenberg, R. L. (2016). Anxiety disorders and phobias: A cognitive perspective. Basic Books.

Anttila, V., Bulik-Sullivan, B., Finucane, H. K., Walters, R. K., Bras, J., Duncan, L., ... & Patsopoulos, N. A. (2018). Analysis of shared heritability in common disorders of the brain. Science, 360(6395), eaap8757.

Hughes, J. R. (2017). Possible effects of smoke-free inpatient units on psychiatric diagnosis and treatment. The Journal of clinical psychiatry.