Differential Diagnosis

The patient has been given a diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Major Depressive Disorder. Since depressive symptoms are common in PTSD we would need to consider whether the depression or the PTSD is the primary diagnosis.

An essential step in the assessment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder is to identify major traumas in the client's. We know that Sarah reports being raped at a young age, but we need to know more about the effects of these experiences. Structured Diagnostic Interviews and Self-Report Instruments have been developed with the purpose of assessing traumas in more detail (Barlow, 2008). Some of the difficulties in assessing PTSD aside from diagnosing it incorrectly when another diagnosis would be appropriate would include the unreliability of self-report data. Patients often exaggerate or over report symptoms in an effort to gain the alliance of an assessing physician or psychologist. Care should be...
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