If you've been closely following additions to the DSM that came with the new text revision, you may have an easy time with this free practice question:
A client who's wife died a little over a year ago reports "constantly thinking" about her. He says he's still "in denial" about her death and struggles with a sense that "life has lost its meaning." Which is the DSM-5-TR diagnosis for the client's condition?
A) Adjustment disorder, depressed type
B) Major depressive disorder
C) Prolonged grief disorder
D) Bereavement
What do you think?
One quick way to answer, if you know your earlier versions of the DSM, is to pick the only answer on the list which is a DSM-5-TR addition (that is, wasn't in earlier versions of the DSM). That rules out adjustment disorder and MDD, right? Then you just have to take a best guess at what the man's symptoms might be labelled as in the DSM-5 Text Revision. Is it bereavement or prolonged grief disorder? And, you might ask, is a little over a year long enough to be considered "prolonged" grief? Well, the answer is prolonged grief disorder-C-and yes, 12+ months is enough time for PGD to be diagnosed.
Read up about the newly minted diagnosis-once a at psychiatry.org. Key information from there:
Symptoms of prolonged grief disorder include:
In the case of prolonged grief disorder, the duration of the person's bereavement exceeds expected social, cultural or religious norms and the symptoms are not better explained by another mental disorder.
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