Psych Disorders & Treatment Review

Reviewing for your Psych Disorders and Treatment Unit Test is going to require you to bring your A-game. You've been working hard all year to master your study habits, so put those hard-earned skills to work in the week ahead.

This unit has a lot (100+) of confusing-sounding vocabulary terms (e.g, drug names, disorder names), so it would be easy to get bogged down in vocabulary. I would highly recommend that you avoid simple "death-by-flashcard" review and instead focus on identifying connections and relationships between ideas. For example: if using flashcards, can you group terms into piles by category? Which ones are anxiety disorders? Which therapeutic techniques are behavioral?

To help you focus your studies and recognize the relationships between the vocabulary terms, I've created this Short List of key items for review. You might question whether this is "short" or not, it will provide a place to start.

Study Session Materials:

• Which One Doesn't Belong? (WS)
• Grid: Comparing Treatment Approaches
• Practice FRQ on Psych Disorders & Treatment
• Review Activity: Who Would Say That? (Therapists)
• Review Activity: Who Would Say That? (Patients/Disorders)
• Review Activity: Treatment Identification

Class Notes/Activities on Psychological Disorders


Therapy & Treatment - Unit 13


Biomedical Treatments (4/14/15)

Diagnosis and Treatment Project

The DSM will become your friend!

At the conclusion of this unit, you should be able to recognize several of the major categories of psychological disorders and their related symptoms. You'll also be able to compare and evaluate different treatment approaches for these disorders.

To demonstrate your mastery of these skills, you will be completing a Diagnosis and Treatment Project that involves analyzing two patient cases and providing diagnosis (based on DSM-IV-TR guidelines) and treatment recommendations for them. You'll also explore how each patient's diagnosis would appear under DSM-5 criteria.

You will be provided with handouts on your specific patient cases in class. They are taken from DSM-IV-TR Casebooks that are used to provide students with practice applying DSM-IV-TR criteria.

Your typed write-ups are due Friday, April 11. Because it is very normal for folks to have questions about this project, I'll be available after school every day this week to help, as well as during lunches and in the AM on Thursday. Please see me if you get stuck.

Resources:

Directions: Diagnosis and Treatment Project

Example: Patient Case and accompanying Diagnosis & Treatment Plan

DSM-IV-TR Codes and Links to Diagnostic Criteria

Handout: Highlights of Changes from DSM-IV-TR to DSM-5

Scoring Rubric: Diagnosis and Treatment Project

Resources for Case Example Application: Diagnosis and Treatment Planning

This week you will apply your knowledge of Psych Disorders and Treatment to create typed case reports for two individuals that you received information about last week. To complete the project you will need:

• The directions for your project and the two case examples you received on Friday (note: different students received different subjects).
• Access to the DSM-IV-TR diagnostic codes. There are several places you can find these. You can navigate through this online version, use the full or abbreviated versions available in the classroom, or access the library's copy of the DSM-IV-TR during study hall. I also have guides for differential diagnosis in my room.
• Access to information about treatment. Here, your textbook will be a good resource, as will the notes you take in class this week.

Diagnosis and treatment planning is obviously a skill that clinicians develop over years of practice, and you are in no way expected to demonstrate proficiency at that level. Your score will be determined based on the rationale (or evidence) you provide for your decisions about diagnosis and treatment options. Even trained professionals do not always agree on diagnostic and treatment decisions, so there is no "right" answer that I am looking for in each of these cases. However, some decisions are more defensible than others, so it is in your best interest to incorporate details from the case example in your rationale and defend your treatment decisions using information from the case and from what you have learned about treatment options.

I am including an example case and an accompanying case report based on that example for your convenience. This should give you an idea of how to format and organize your final product, though keep in mind you will complete TWO of these.

Out of the Shadows - Children's Mental Health

On April 12th, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire's Continuing Education Office will be hosting a community event to raise awareness about children's mental health. Entitled, "Out of the Shadows: Children's Mental Health," the program is intended for "families, communities, educators, and others affected by children's mental health to talk with one another about child and adolescent mental health issues, hear from a variety of professionals that touch the lives of children with mental health needs, and discover how everyone can better work together."

The event, which will be held at the Sacred Heart Hospital Auditorium in Eau Claire, will take place from 5:30 - 8:00 PM and feature a viewing of the film Are the Kids Alright?, a documentary film examining the crisis in mental health care for children and adolescents at risk. A panel discussion on children's mental health in the Chippewa Valley will follow the film. Pre-registration and payment ($15) for the event is required, as participants will be treated to a hors d'oeuvre reception and receive educational materials to accompany the program.

Since this event coincides perfectly with our in-class coverage of psychological disorders and their treatment, it is a very timely topic for AP Psych students. As such, Mrs. Welle is offering up hefty extra credit for those who ultimately attend. Due to the expense and effort outside of school, 10 POINTS extra credit will be awarded to attendees. Keep your ticket/program to demonstrate proof of attendance, though you likely will also see Mrs. Welle there.

If you wish to register online via credit card, you may do so by following this link. However, since many students may prefer to pay via cash or check (and...if the number of participants is limited, Psych Club may be able to kick in some of the cost), Mrs. Welle will collect registration forms & payments from interested students up until the end of this week (March 30th). Copies are available in the classroom. (If paying by check, you can make checks payable to UW-Eau Claire.)

Book Review: My Lobotomy by Howard Dully

My Lobotomy by Howard Dully

Whoa. This is an AMAZING story. The author, Howard Dully, underwent a lobotomy at the age of 12. The predictable part: his life was pretty terrible for many years thereafter. The surprising parts: apparently the operation was at the behest of his stepmother, who urged it basically because she didn't like him and wanted him to disappear AND he managed to survive the ordeal (albeit damaged) to eventually lead a semi-normal life. In fact, the plasticity of his brain at 12 was likely what saved him from becoming an institutionalized zombie. He was one of the youngest lobotomy patients every worked on by the "lobomist" Dr. Walter Freeman.

The most striking thing about this story, to me, is that despite the obvious risk and consequence associated with the lobotomy, the worst damage done to Dully seems to have been a result of the broken relationship with his family. Due to his youth, his brain recovered. However, even in his late fifties as he uncovered the details of the story, he continued to question whether he was loved because of the remarkable dysfunction of his family. Yet he does not come off as a "victim" as you might expect. He seems a surprisingly resilient man.

I suppose he had to be.