In the course of my career development, I have been able to care for emergency cases of adults with psychiatric problems. One of them was of 35-year old African female who attempted to commit suicide through overdose. She feared to become a single parent, her financial difficulties, and separation from the spouse. She considered herself a burden to the family since she was in a wheelchair after getting an accident that crippled her. She was diagnosed with major depressive disorder, and she was then placed on observation by a psychiatrist (APA, 2013). Her lab test included thyroid-stimulating hormone level, magnesium level, compressive metabolic panel, urine pregnancy test, and phosphorous level.
After 45 minutes on the unit, she requested release and filled the paperwork required for release. Additionally, she was put on a 72-hour hold to monitor her condition. After some time, the nurse practitioner in the mental health sector introduced the client in antidepressant after psychiatric evaluation. After being observed for 24 hours, the level of observation was minimized to check-ups after fifteen minutes. Her new observation schedule was daily psychiatric analysis, weekly individual therapy, and daily group psychotherapy.
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How Adolescent or Child Would be Treated Differently
In case the patients could have been a minor, then diagnosis would involve questioning the guardian or patient. The lab test is to involve would be the same as what has been done to the adult in exception of the pregnancy test if the child is below the age of bearing a child (Thapar, et al., 2015) . Even though the testing procedures are the same, the clinicians need to use simple words and be kind to the patient. The major question could have been related to bullying at the social media platform, school, or by parents. During pediatric therapy, the client could have been part of a family therapy session to succeed in the treatment ( Sadock et al., 2014). Depending on the severity of the disorder, the medications would include SSRI for the pediatric patient.
Ethical Issue
Ethics require informed consent to be received from a parent before treatment. Additionally, the clinician must get consent from parents when they need to reduce or increase the medications administered (Stahl, 2014) . Moreover, there is a need to obtain consent from minors before treatment.
References
Sadock, B. J., Sadock, V. A., & Ruiz, P. (2014). Kaplan & Sadock’s synopsis of psychiatry: Behavioral sciences/clinical psychiatry (11th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer. Chapter 23, “Emergency Psychiatric Medicine” (pp. 785–790) Chapter 31, “Child Psychiatry” (pp. 1226–1253)
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-5®) . American Psychiatric Pub.
Stahl, S. M. (2014). Prescriber’s guide to Stahl’s essential psychopharmacology. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Thapar, A., Pine, D. S., Leckman, J. F., Scott, S., Snowling, M. J., & Taylor, E. A. (2015). Rutter's child and adolescent psychiatry (6th ed.). Wiley.
