Study Guide

Depressive Disorders
Anxiety Disorders
Normal Bereavement
Adjustment Disorders
Reproductive Psychiatry
Anti-depressant Medications
Anti-anxiety Medications
1) Memorize the criteria for a Major Depressive Episode. It may help to group the
criteria into mood, cognitive, and neurovegetative symptoms.
2) Look at the criteria for Major Depressive Episode (MDE), Dysthymic Disorder,
Adjustment Disorder, and Bereavement side-by-side. How does one distinguish
between MDE and Dysthymic Disorder? MDE and Adjustment Disorder? MDE
and Bereavement? You answer should include typical symptoms, time course,
and level of functional impairment.
3) What are indications for use of SSRI (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor)
medications? What are common initiation side effects? How about common
withdrawal or discontinuation side effects? What are common side effects with
longer-term use that lead patients to stop taking SSRIs?
4) The FDA has recently issues warnings about the use of SSRIs in children,
adolescents, and young adults. What is the warning about?
5) What is the risk of using anti-depressants in someone with as-yet undiagnosed
bipolar disorder?
6) Memorize the criteria for a panic attack.
7) Panic attacks often present in medical ER settings with cardiac-like symptoms.
How does one distinguish a panic attack from acute myocardial infarction or other
cardiac disease? (Put in more medical language: what is the differential diagnosis
and work-up of chest pain and shortness of breath?)
8) What are the three clusters of symptoms for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
(PTSD)? What are the symptoms of Acute Stress Disorder (ASD)? How is their
time course different? Are PTSD and ASD the only psychiatric response to a
traumatic event?
9) At this point in time, is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder thought to result
primarily from a biological or a psychodynamic cause?
10) Why would anyone use psychotropic medications during pregnancy? Which
mood stabilizers are particularly teratogenic? What are the risks of using SSRIs
during pregnancy? What are the risks of not using them?
11) How are Baby Blues different from Post-Partum Major Depressive Disorder and
Post-Partum Psychosis? Your answer should include time course after delivery,
level of functional impairment, and potential for danger to mother and infant.
From 2nd edition of Blueprints Clinical Cases in Psychiatry: Read cases 39