Assignment: Schizoaffective Disorder
Assignment Schizoaffective Disorder
A Schizoaffective disorder presents with psychosis and mood disorders. Treating the disorder requires one to integrate both schizophrenia and mood disorder medications to control symptoms (Miller & Black, 2019). The fluctuating mood and psychotic disorder make life tumultuous and even with proper medication and therapy, the symptoms continue to occur at varying degrees of intensity. In the case of “The son who would not take a shower”, the patient is a 32-year old man who has an 18-year history of psychotic disorder. The parents are in a dilemma on how to move their son towards independence without making him homeless or decompensating his psychotic illness. The purpose of this paper is to generate three questions that can be directed to the patient in a clinic, establish people in the patient’s life who can provide more information, outline physical and diagnostic tests for the patient, differential diagnosis and pharmacological agents. The paper Assignment Schizoaffective Disorder will also offer lessons learned from the case.
Patient Questions
To create a therapeutic relationship with a patient, it is essential to execute a comprehensive history. One has to prepare a list of questions to collect the necessary information that will guide the process of disease diagnosis. For the current patient, the first question to ask would be around the symptoms, the patient should explain how his symptoms occur to help in establishing if his condition is either depressive or bipolar type (Miller & Black, 2019). Secondly, a question on family history of schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia would help in illuminating risk factors. Additionally, the patient should explain when his symptoms began and the specific goals that the clinician should help him achieve. Lastly, he should answer if he feels he can comfortably live independently. The answer would guide on advice given to the parents on their concerns.
People around the Patient
The people around the patient who can offer information that would aid in diagnosis are the parents. The first question would be how
they treat their son while at home. The answers would explain whether they are providing helpful support or are fostering dependency. Secondly, parents should answer whether they feel their son can live alone. The answers will help in guiding the family progress towards making their son develop long-term independence and adopt behaviors and skills that are consistent with another living arrangement.
The patient presentation calls for extra physical exams and diagnostic tests to confirm and rule out the presence of some disease. The
patient should undergo a complete blood count test to monitor general health and establish if anemia is the cause of manic-depressive illness or depression in bipolar disorder (Seldin, Armstrong, Schiff & Heckers, 2017). A neurological exam is also crucial to guide on whether there is a need to perform a brain MRI or CT to rule out neurological disorders like encephalitis, brain tumors, and epilepsy. Lastly, a toxicology screen is necessary to determine if drugs are the cause of psychotic symptoms.
Differential Diagnosis
The patient could be having schizophrenia, substance-induced psychotic disorder or schizoaffective disorder (Kargar, Askari, Khoshaman & Mohammadi, 2019). Schizophrenia is considered because of mood symptoms however it is ruled out considering the duration of mood symptoms relative to the total duration of the episode of illness and lack of 6 months of prodromal or residual symptoms (Kargar et al., 2019). The substance-induced psychotic disorder is considered because of marijuana intake. However, the delusions are crystalized and the auditory hallucinations are not suspicious. The most probable disorder is schizoaffective disorder bipolar type. The patient has a mood episode that occurs concurrently with psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia.
Pharmacological Agents
The patient should be managed using paliperidone extended-release (Invega) and valproate (Depakote). Paliperidone is selected because it is the only antipsychotic drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treats schizoaffective disorder (Fu et al., 2016). The drug balances dopamine and serotonin which improve behavior, mood, and thinking. Valproate is selected as a mood stabilizer to level out mania highs and depression lows. Invega should be taken at 6mg orally once per day. Initial dose titration is not required and the maximum dose is 12mg/day. Since greater effects can be seen at a higher dosage, once the patient proves to tolerate the medication, it can be titrated using increments of 3mg per day at intervals of more than 4 days (Fu et al., 2016). Depakote should be taken at 750mg orally per day in divided disease. The drug has to be rapidly titrated to get the lowest effective dose (Remmerie et al., 2016). The maximum dose is 60mg/kg/day.
Between the two drugs, the drug selected for the patient is Invega because it is FDA approved and can be used as a monotherapy for schizoaffective disorder (Remmerie et al., 2016). Depakote is used as an adjunct therapy for the patient with schizoaffective disorder bipolar type.
Lesson Learned
The case study has inculcated valuable lessons. One it has enhanced knowledge on the schizoaffective disorder and its risk factors like genetics and drug abuse. Secondly, it has led to the understanding of various tests that can be used to conclude a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder. Additionally, the case has enhanced knowledge on different disorders that present as schizoaffective disorder and the pharmacological agents required to manage the disease.
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Important information for writing discussion questions and participation
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Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to
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Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.
I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!
Hi Class,
Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.
Contact me if you have any questions.
Important information on Writing a Discussion Question
- Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
- There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
- Include in-text citations in your response
- Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
- Follow APA-7th edition
- Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor
- A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
- Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
- Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
- Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
- Follow APA 7th edition
- Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
- Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
- Here are some helpful links
- Student paper example
- Citing Sources
- The Writing Center is a great resource