Ap Psychology Case Study Essay

MALADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR & PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

Kwame Danquah

Argosy University

Prof. Jennifer Myers

FP6005 A01

April 4, 2017

Primary and Secondary Diagnoses

Jessica E. Smith was referred to as my office for a psychological evaluation. Thus concluding the primary diagnosis is borderline personality disorder. Ms. Smith’s background and demographic information were obtained before the actual evaluation and revealed information that fits the criteria of the diagnosis. Ms. Smith was also administered the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2), which assessed her personal attitude, beliefs, and experiences. Which is conducive to borderline personality disorder.

Ms. Smith was born in Jersey City, NJ and raised in Williamsport, PA, she is the oldest of three children, she is currently, forty-one-years-old and is Caucasian. According to Ms.

Smith, physical and mental abuse were a part of her past. To cope with difficult situations she began “cutting” and using alcohol at the age of twelve years old. The progression of abuse of substances moved towards crystal meth and prescription medications. Which resulted in an attempt to take her life after dealing with a loss of a loved one.

Those diagnosed are exceedingly unstable emotionally and

Substance/medication-induced depressive disorder appears to be related to Mrs. Smith mood disturbance; it has been used for many years as a coping mechanism. Based on the medications that Mrs. Smith has taken prior, this diagnosis best fits her symptoms and treatments. The secondary differential diagnosis is acute stress disorder acute stress disorder is caused by a traumatic event that has occurred in an individual’s life. Mrs. Smith has endured traumatic events in her life and these events occurred when she was a child. Child-abuse, self-mutilating and then eventually substance abuse is what brought me to this