Test your diagnostic skills with this video. We’ll look at the details of the case of Maya before you determine what you think the diagnosis will be. At the end, we’ll review the diagnosis for Maya, and discuss how each criteria does or does not apply in her case.
Maya Rodriguez, a 28-year-old graphic designer. She presents for an intake appointment 10 days after surviving a multi-car pileup on a major highway. Her intake appointment is taking place virtually as Maya has not been able to be in a vehicle without feeling extreme distress, which began after the accident. While Maya escaped with minor bruises, she witnessed a passenger in an adjacent vehicle being extracted by emergency crews with life-threatening injuries. She reports feeling “shattered” and “unable to snap out of it,” stating that her brain feels like it’s “stuck on the highway.” Maya states that she has not been able to return to work since the accident, not because of any physical injuries, but because she cannot get her mind off the accident and has become socially withdrawn.
Throughout the intake, Maya says that she has been experiencing nightmares of the accident, and memories of the sounds from the accident, like the crushing metal of cars. She says that she feels “dead inside” and that she hasn’t felt happy since the accident. She describes the world as “foggy” and says that she feels like she’s in a movie, not in real life. Maya says that she has struggled with sleep because of the nightmares, and that she also doesn’t want to go to sleep because she is afraid to have the nightmares. She says she has been very jumpy since the accident as well.
Maya appears tense. She exhibits a restricted affect and speaks in a low, monotone voice. She is oriented to person, place, and time, but her concentration is poor; she frequently loses her train of thought, being easily distracted by various things around her. She denies suicidal or homicidal ideation but expresses a sense of hopelessness about “ever feeling normal again.”
As a quick recap, Maya was in a multi-car pileup 10 days ago. Immediately after the accident, she began experiencing a variety of symptoms that have lasted for the last 10 days. She has not worked since the accident, for multiple reasons, but this includes because of fear of getting in a vehicle again.
Based on what Maya reports, she meets criteria for a diagnosis of Acute Stress Disorder. Check out this diagnosis in your DSM to learn more about this diagnosis. If you want to learn more about Acute Stress Disorder, make sure you subscribe as we’ll be diving into this diagnosis in the next video.
Note: This case presentation is for entertainment and educational purposes. Any resemblance that this case has to a real situation is purely coincidence.
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