Psychiatric Assessment of Children Under 15 Years Old

Psychiatric Assessment of Children Under 15 Years Old
Title
Your Name
Subject and Section
Professor's Name
Date
1 Describe a clinical situation in detail. (Who was it, when it happened, what happened, what caused it to happen, where it happened, how it happened).
This was a case of A.J., a 15-year-old female patient who came for consultation secondary to consistent low moods for most of the days for the past three months, with associated lack of pleasure in previously enjoyable activities and the emergence of suicidal thoughts. Moreover, the patient also suffered from difficulty sleeping, unintentional weight loss of six kilograms (kg) in three months, and poor academic performance. The history of present illness demonstrated that this started when her parents divorced three months ago, secondary to the extramarital affair. The patient discovered that her father was dating a younger woman and followed them inside the hotel. This happened thrice, and the patient witnessed everything. Due to the event, the patient also discovered that the mother was also having an affair.
The past medical and psychiatric history was unremarkable. There was a family history of bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder on the mother's side. Social history revealed that the patient does not smoke, drink alcohol, or use illicit drugs. The patient also stated that this affected her relationship with her family and peers stating that she refused to go out and do recreational activities. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (2016), these symptoms are conclusive of major depressive disorder.
The consultation was done inside the hospital clinic, with the adolescent and the mother, her primary guardian. Initially, the clinician introduced, established rapport, and explained the procedure. Before the actual interview, the mother was asked to stay outside the room to allow the adolescent to voice out all of her problems. Initially, the patient was hesitant, answered briefly to open-ended questions, and preferred to answer yes and no questions only. The clinician showed that one is capable of understanding the situation and told a story about personal experiences to which the patient can relate. Aside from this, the clinician explained that this could help the patient to feel better in the future. Eventually, the patient opened up despite taking it for more than an hour.
2 What feelings, prejudices, and biases did you experience during the interview? 
A clinician should always remain objective during psychiatric interviews to prevent being influenced by the subjectivity of the patient's claims while maintaining open communication (Michigan Medicine, 2016).
During the interview, I could relate to the patient's sorrow, anger, and fear, which are reasonable based on the situation. The prejudices and biases were based on the direction of the patient's anger, which was one-sided. Based on the patient's explanation, she was mad at her father but not with her mother due to qualifying circumstances such as the following: 1) The mother provided more of the necessities than the father.; 2) The father was usually absent in the critical events in her life. Analyzing the situation, if I were the pat...