Assignment: Assessing and Diagnosing Patients with Neurocognitive and Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Assignment: Assessing and Diagnosing Patients with Neurocognitive and Neurodevelopmental Disorders
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Neurodevelopmental disorders begin in the developmental period of childhood and may continue through adulthood. They may range from the very specific to a general or global impairment, and often co-occur (APA, 2013). They include specific learning and language disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorders, and intellectual disabilities. Neurocognitive disorders, on the other hand, represent a decline in one or more areas of prior mental function that is significant enough to impact independent functioning. They may occur at any time in life and be caused by factors such brain injury; diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, or Huntington’s; infection; or stroke, among others.
For this Assignment, you will assess a patient in a case study who presents with a neurocognitive or neurodevelopmental disorder.
To Prepare:
- Review this week’s Learning Resources and consider the insights they provide. Consider how neurocognitive impairments may have similar presentations to other psychological disorders.
- Review the Comprehensive Psychiatric Evaluation template, which you will use to complete this Assignment.
- By Day 1 of this week, select a specific video case study to use for this Assignment from the Video Case Selections choices in the Learning Resources. View your assigned video case and review the additional data for the case in the “Case History Reports” document, keeping the requirements of the evaluation template in mind.
- Consider what history would be necessary to collect from this patient.
- Consider what interview questions you would need to ask this patient.
- Identify at least three possible differential diagnoses for the patient. Assignment: Assessing and Diagnosing Patients with Neurocognitive and Neurodevelopmental Disorders
By Day 7 of Week 10
Complete and submit your Comprehensive Psychiatric Evaluation, including your differential diagnosis and critical-thinking process to formulate primary diagnosis.
Incorporate the following into your responses in the template:
- Subjective: What details did the patient provide regarding their chief complaint and symptomology to derive your differential diagnosis? What is the duration and severity of their symptoms? How are their symptoms impacting their functioning in life?
- Objective: What observations did you make during the psychiatric assessment?
- Assessment: Discuss the patient’s mental status examination results. What were your differential diagnoses? Provide a minimum of three possible diagnoses with supporting evidence, listed in order from highest priority to lowest priority. Compare the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for each differential diagnosis and explain what DSM-5 criteria rules out the differential diagnosis to find an accurate diagnosis. Explain the critical-thinking process that led you to the primary diagnosis you selected. Include pertinent positives and pertinent negatives for the specific patient case.
- Reflection notes: What would you do differently with this client if you could conduct the session over? Also include in your reflection a discussion related to legal/ethical considerations (demonstrate critical thinking beyond confidentiality and consent for treatment!), health promotion and disease prevention taking into consideration patient factors (such as age, ethnic group, etc.), PMH, and other risk factors (e.g., socioeconomic, cultural background, etc.).
Submission and Grading Information
To submit your completed Assignment for review and grading, do the following:
- Please save your Assignment using the naming convention “WK10Assgn+last name first initial. (extension)” as the name.
- Click the Week 10 Assignment Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Assignment.
- Click the Week 10 Assignment link. You will also be able to “View Rubric” for grading criteria from this area.
- Next, from the Attach File area, click on the Browse My Computer button. Find the document you saved as “WK10Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” and click Open.
- If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database.
- Click on the Submit button to complete your submission. Assignment: Assessing and Diagnosing Patients with Neurocognitive and Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Note: choose 1 Case Study
Week 10 Neurocognitive and Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Training Title 48
Name: Sarah Higgins
Gender: female
Age: 9 years old
T- 97.4 P- 62 R 14 95/60 Ht 4’5 Wt 63lbs
Background: no history of treatment, developmental milestones met on time, vaccinations up
to date. Sleeps 9hrs/night, meals are difficult as she has hard time sitting for meals, she does
get proper nutrition per PCP.
Symptom Media. (Producer). (2017). Training title 48 [Video}
https://video-alexanderstreet-com.eu1.proxy.openathens.net/watch/training-title-48
Training Title 50
Name: Harold Griffin
Gender: male
Age:58 years old
T- 98.8 P- 86 R 18 134/88 Ht 5’11 Wt 180lbs
Background:
Has bachelor’s degree in engineering. He is homosexual and dates casually, never married, no
children. Has one younger sister. Sleeps 4-6 hours, appetite good. Denied legal issues; MOCA
27/30 difficulty with attention and delayed recall; ASRS-5 20/24; denied hx of drug use; enjoys
one scotch drink on the weekends with a cigar. Allergies Morphine; history HTN blood pressure
controlled with losartan 100mg daily, angina prescribed ASA 81mg po daily, metoprolol 25mg
twice daily. Hypertriglyceridemia prescribed fenofibrate 160mg daily, has BPH prescribed
tamsulosin 0.4mg po bedtime.
Symptom Media. (Producer). (2017).
https://video-alexanderstreet-com.eu1.proxy.openathens.net/watch/training-title-50
