PRAC 6665 Week 4 Mood Disorders Across the Lifespan

Introduction

There is a strong likelihood that you will encounter both children/adolescents and adults at your practicum site who suffer from mood disorders. Depressive disorders, for instance, affect up to 3 percent of children and 8 percent of adolescents (Thapar et al., 2015). This increases in adulthood to a lifetime prevalence of up to 25% in women and

12% in men (Wang et al., 2017). Based on your prior work, you may have more experience working with adults. If this is the case, it is important to recognize that while mood disorders may appear across the lifespan, even in young children, the symptoms children and adolescents experience may be different from those present in adults. 

Seek out information from your current and prior Learning Resources and from your Preceptor to help guide your diagnosis of these disorders in different age groups. This week, you review resources on assessing, diagnosing, and treating mood disorders across the lifespan. You also continue to record your clinical hours and patient encounters in Meditrek.

References:

  • Thapar, A., Pine, D. S., Leckman, J. F., Scott, S., Snowling, M. J., & Taylor, E. A. (Eds.). (2015). Rutter’s child and adolescent psychiatry (6th ed.). Wiley Blackwell.
  • Wang, J., Wu, X., Lai, W., Long, E., Zhang, X., Li, W., Zhu, Y., Chen, C., Zhong, X., Liu, Z., Wang, D., & Lin, H. (2017). Prevalence of depression and depressive symptoms among outpatients: A systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ Open, 7(8), e017173. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-017173

Learning Objectives

Students will:

  • Describe clinical hours and patient encounters

Learning Resources

  • Carlat, D. J. (2017). The psychiatric interview (4th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.
  • Chapter 23, “Assessing Mood Disorders I: Depressive Disorders”
  • Chapter 24, “Assessing Mood Disorders II: Bipolar Disorder” Meditrek https://edu.meditrek.com/Default.html

Note: Use this link to log into Meditrek to report your clinical hours and patient encounters.

  • Stern, T. A., Fava, M., Wilens, T. E., & Rosenbaum, J. F. (2016). Massachusetts General Hospital psychopharmacology and neurotherapeutics. Elsevier.
  • Chapter 4, “Antidepressants”
  • Chapter 5, “Bipolar Disorder”
  • Chapter 8, “Lithium and Its Role in Psychiatry”
  • Chapter 9, “Use of Antiepileptic Drugs in Psychiatry”

Assignment: Clinical Hour And Patient Logs

Clinical Hour Log

For this course, all practicum activity hours are logged within the Meditrek system. Hours completed must be logged in Meditrek within 48 hours of completion in order to be counted.

You may only log hours with Preceptors that are approved in Meditrek. Students with catalog years before Spring 2018 must complete a minimum of 576 hours of supervised clinical experience (144 hours in each practicum course). Students with catalog years beginning Spring 2018 must complete a minimum of 640 hours of supervised clinical experience (160 hours in each practicum course).

Each log entry must be linked with an individual practicum Learning Objective or a graduate Program Objective. You should track your hours in Meditrek as they are completed.

Your clinical hour log must include the following:

  • Dates
  • Course
  • Clinical Faculty
  • Preceptor
  • Total Time (for the day)
  • Notes/Comments (including the objective to which the log entry is aligned)
  • Patient Log

Throughout this course, you will also keep a log of patient encounters using Meditrek. You must record at least 80 encounters with patients by the end of this practicum (40 children/adolescents and 40 adult/older adults).

The patient log must include the following:

  • Date
  • Course
  • Clinical Faculty
  • Preceptor
  • Patient Number
  • Client Information
  • Visit Information
  • Practice Management
  • Diagnosis
  • Treatment Plan and Notes: You must include a brief summary/synopsis of the patient visit. This does not need to be a SOAP note, however the note needs to be sufficient to remember your patient encounter.

By Day 7 of Week 4

Record your clinical hours and patient encounters in Meditrek