Psych Case Study Essay

Submitted By Griffith2
Words: 2721
Pages: 11

Mental Health Case Study
Undifferentiated Schizophrenia
June 19 2013

Personal Data
Patient D.C is a 29 year old single black male weighting 145 pounds and 67 inches. He has four siblings two brother and two sisters, ranging in age from 26 to 38 years old. Patient states religion as christian. He was admitted to broughton hospital on October 10th of 2011 this was his second admission here, previous admit date was November of 2001 till discharged February 2002. His admitting diagnosis was undifferentiated schizophrenia. He was admitted here to broughton hospital right after serving his sentence in central prison, due to showing bizarre behaviors and symptoms of depression while incarcerated. The reason of his imprisonment was that he was convicted of three counts of indecent liberties with a child (teenage female) in 2005 pt was age 21. In the following year 2006 he was charged with failure to give address since he was having to register as a sex offender in county of residence. He was also charged with 2nd degree kidnapping and misdemeanor assault of a female in 2008. He has a 10 yr prior history of mental problems with one attempted suicide with overdose.
Axis I: Undifferentiated Schizophrenia
Alcohol abuse
Cannabis abuse
Cocaine abuse
Axis II: Deferred
Axis III:
Axis IV: Other psychosocial & environmental problems
Axis V: 20 -Global Assessment of Functioning Admission
Score of 45 on 5/21/2013

History Psychosociolcultural
D.C family composition consisted of his mother who presently lives in a private residence in Gaston county. His father which is presently living in Louisiana. He was born and spend the majority of his life until age of 18yrs old in New Jersey then his parents moved and brought him to North Carolina. Patient states that both parents are alcoholics and he was in and out of foster care for the majority of his childhood. He stated he didn’t have any contact with his parents “they are neglectful and abusive”. He told the psychologist he had been emotional, physically, and sexually abused while he was in foster homes. There was some documentation of patient receiving a head injury at age of 7. His present living situation before admission was homeless, he was also unemployed and didn’t have any health insurance. Patients history of employment was at McDonalds restaurant. His educational level was 12th grade. He denied any family history of mental health disorders. Patients chart showed his sexual identity as pedophilia, he was tested to show increased attraction to white females from age 6-13 yrs old and prepubescent black African American males ages 5 or less and boys 6-13yrs old.
Psychological Diagnosis
Schizophrenia is a neurobiologic disorder of the brain categorized as a thought disorder with disturbances in thinking, feeling, perceiving, and relating to others and the environment. ( Swearingen, 2008, pg 76 9)
Pathophysiology
Schizophrenia is the most common and most disabling of the major mental disorders, with a estimated 2 million Americans afflicted. This disorder is a mixture of both positive and negative symptoms that are present for a significant amount part of a 1 month period but with continuous signs of disturbance persisting for at least 6 months. Positive symptoms are those that exist but should not be present including delusions, hallucinations, thought disorder, disorganized speech, and disorganized or catatonic behavior. Negative symptoms refer to behaviors that should be present but are not, including restriction or flattening in the range and intensity of emotion, reduced fluency, and productivity of thought and speech, withdrawal and inability to initiate and persist in goal-directed activity, and inability to experience pleasure.( Swearingen, 2008, pg 769)
Risk factors include being unmarried and younger than 45 years of age for both men and women, and living in an industrialized urban area as a member of lower socioeconomic class. It is also well