Assessing Mood Disorders

Assessing Mood Disorders
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Assessing Mood Disorders
The case study concerns a 16 year old girl named as Brenda. The adolescent has an escalated problem that has led to the need of seeking medical attention. Brenda has had several cases of wrist-cutting or escalated self-harm that has resulted in hospital admission. For some time now, Brenda has been truant from school and has been seen using several types of drugs. More so, observers have noted that the adolescent has been very irritable and moody (Karni, 2011). At the time of admission, the girl was diagnosed with an undetermined mood disorder and multiple substance abuses. One of the reasons that may be leading to Brenda’s mood disorder and substance abuse that eventually lead to her habit of self-harm is that she is angry at her parents. During the first session of family therapy as an intervention Brenda’s father leaves the session after being scolded by her mother. As such Brenda is not happy when her father leaves and she says that she is ready to work out a better relationship with her father. She opens up about the burden of living with conflicting parents and the problem of being incited by her mother to turn against her father (Karni, 2011). Brenda further discloses that her family is not a real one as they never do things together. In most cases Brenda harms herself through self-cutting when she is angry or worried about her parents. This habit is presented along with using different drugs to calm her anger or forget about the challenging conditions she is exposed to.

Therefore, in this case, the most appropriate intervention would be Attachment Based Family Therapy. This intervention is particularly designed for treating stressed and suicidal adolescents. The most appropriate scenarios for applying this intervention include when there is escalated family conflict, emotional neglect or harsh criticism. According to Karni (2011), attachment based family therapy can be utilized in repairing ruptured attachments that may lead to self-harm among adolescents. In this case, all the family members, including, Brenda, her mother and dad attend can attend an Attachment Based Family Therapy session where they open up about their relationship struggles. In this way a therapist can help them improve relationship and live as a family. In turn this would help eliminate Brenda’s worries about her family and as well reduce the chances of getting angry at her parents, which eventually leads to her habit of self-harm and drug abuse.
References
Karni Kissil (2011): Attachment-Based Family Therapy for Adolescent Self-Injury,
Journal of Family Psychotherapy, 22:4, 313-327