Assignment:

HYPOTHETICAL CASE:

Joe, a 38-year-old divorced male presents to the office with his ex-wife. They have 2 teenage boys who have reported to their mother that their father stays up all night and can be heard talking to himself loudly. When the father was asked why he wasn`t sleeping, he said he was working on deciphering clues he found in the trash at work which he believes the FBI planted for him to find. Joe believes he has been recruited by the FBI and that the prevention of the next terrorist attack depends on him. Joe stated that he cannot give any more details about the information he is finding as this could put others in danger. Joe has been calling in to his work for the past week so he can work on this "assignment."

Joe also speaks rapidly and jumps from topic to topic during the interview. Joe reports he stopped his "brain medication" a few months ago because he had been feeling well for years and didn`t think he needed it anymore. Joe`s Ex-wife shares that Joe was in a psychiatric hospital for 2 weeks about 5 years ago and had been doing well up until the past 2 weeks. Joe denies suicidal/homicidal ideation. Denies delusions, hallucinations, feelings of persecution, or preoccupation with religion. No known drug use or abuse.

QUESTIONS:

PLEASE DISCUSS IN DETAIL:

1. What subjective and objective questions would you ask?

2. What screening tools would you use?

3. Develop three (3) differential diagnosis and discuss and finalize the diagnosis, identify diagnostics tests, and formulate diagnosis. Provide the DSM-5 criteria for this diagnosis.

RESOURCES:

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.).

Boland, R., Verduin, M., & Ruiz, P. (2021). Kaplan & Sadock`s synopsis of psychiatry (12th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.