Mental Health Essay: Case Analysis Of Angelo
Question
Task: Angelo is a 19-year-old man. He lives with his parents and he is an apprentice diesel mechanic. Encouraged by his family, Angelo presented for assessment at his local hospital. As a nurse, you are part of the multidisciplinary team responsible for Angelo’s assessment. On admission Angelo appears withdrawn. His parents report that Angelo’s behaviour has changed gradually over the last 6 months. He has become moody and uncommunicative and seems to have lost interest in life. Angelo’s parents also report that in recent weeks he has started talking about his thoughts being controlled by energy waves emitted by the television. At times he has been overheard talking to himself. His parents state that Angelo has in the past used cannabis heavily. His work performance has suffered, and his colleagues have also noticed the changes in Angelo’s mood and behaviour.
Clinical scenario questions to answered through the mental health essay
1. During your interview with Angelo, you note that he is not forthcoming with personal information. What communication techniques would you use to obtain a clinical history? (400 words)
2. Some aspects of Angelo’s history are suggestive of psychosis. Define psychosis and explain the primary features of a psychotic presentation. (400 words).
3. A provisional diagnosis of schizophrenia is made, and Angelo is admitted to the mental health unit for observation and further assessment. Explain the concept of positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia and the implications for treatment.
4. Explain the potential role of neurotransmitters in the development of schizophrenia.
Answer
Mental health essay1
Introduction
It is evident herein mental health essaythat communication techniques play an important role in establishing a relationship that would help to make the other patient share his point of view (Lavelle, Healey, & McCabe, 2012). The more the client is comfortable with the clinician and his communication skills, the more clients will be expressive. As Angelo was not expressing his thoughts to the clinician, there is a need to change the communication techniques.
Communication techniques for Angelo
At this point where there is a need to know the history related to the client to evaluate the information to understand his condition, several communication techniques are required. The techniques that would help a 19 yearold man would be quite friendly, presenting questions clearly, and being open-minded. Being friendly will help the clinician to provide an environment that would be quite helpful for the client. In general, the client who is facing some sort of mental illness is shy and feels uncomfortable to be part of any conversation. The friendliness of the clinician will help the client to be comfortable to share his thoughts. Being clear to the client is the perfect way to get a clear perception of his thoughts. A clear question would make a clear image in the client's mind without any confusion. Multiple questions at a time would let Angelo to be more uncomfortable and confused; this would also let him to avoid reply to the questions, which is quiteimportant for the clinician to understand the causes of mental illness. In general, the individual having a mental illness has a harsh past that letthem lead a life with some sort of mental illness like depression and many others. It is very important for the client to feel and understand that a clinician is an open-minded person. This would encourage the client to express his bitter truth with afeeling that clinician will understand his situation and wouldn’t judge him based on it (Owen et al., 2016). As in the case of Angelo, it is necessary to understand the past related to him which would help clear the causes of the mental illness he is facing now.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that communication techniques such as being friendly, being clear, and open-minded of the clinician would help him to communicate and share his feelings. Hence, applying these communication techniques would provide a comfortable zone for Angelo to share his history and help the clinician to understand him.
Mental health essay2
Introduction
Mental illness can of several types, depending upon the level of the complication an individual is facing mental illness are characterized. Psychosis is a form of mental illness that affects the way the brain processes information (Du et al., 2017). Some of the aspects related to the history of Angelo suggest that he is facing the psychosis. The discussion below will be highlighting what is psychosis and the primary features of the psychotic presentation.
About Psychosis
The psychosis is a situation of the brain which an individual faces. The capability of the brain to processes the information is somehow got damaged (Kline et al., 2013). The individual facing the psychosis loses the ability to keep in touch with reality. The Individual begins to hear, see, and believe the things that do not exist in the world or that are not present in front of the individual at that movement. Psychosis is a system of mental or physical illness. The causes of psychosis are considered to be excess of stress or extremely abused for something which has a direct impact on mental health. Along with this it can cause due to the trauma, occurred due to any kind of disease. Psychotic disorders like schizophrenia which included psychosis are generally seen in early teenagers (Watkins, Crystal & Andrews, Sarah, 2015). It is a kind of hallucination and delusion that lets the individual hears and sees things that do not exist or happen.
What are the primary features of the psychotic presentation noted in the mental health essay?
The primary features of the psychotic presentation are
- Before warning sign of psychosis: Changes in understanding and thoughts related to the world. The noticeable thinking would be a sudden drop in performance, trouble in thinking and concentrating, lack of self-care or hygiene, no emotions at all, and stronger emotions (Turkington, 2012).
- Sign of early psychosis: The individual will hear, see, and taste things that do not exist in the world or not happening in the present situations. Client begins to stay away from family and friends. Abnormal behavior and maintenance of the self. Not able to think properly and are not able to pay attention to.
- Symptoms of the psychotic episode are hallucinations and delusions (Vita et al., 2016).
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded herein mental health essay that psychosis is a problem that leads to problems in the processing of the information in the brain. Angelo was facing the trouble of having hallucinations and delusion which reflects that he is suffering psychosis.
Mental health essay 3
Introduction
Angelo is being admitted to the mental unit for observation and a provisional diagnosis of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a condition of the mental illness within which people interpret reality abnormally. It results in a combination of hallucinations and delusion and extremely impairs the behaviors and thinking of the individual.
The positive symptoms are
The symptoms that are considered as positive include hallucination and delusion.
Hallucination: The individual how is having the hallucination would not be able to hear, smell, and feel things around them (
Llorca et al., 2016). The types of hallucination that are present are
Auditory: The individual hears the things and voices that do not exist or are not present near the individual. Client might whisper, angry, and murmur the unnecessary needs of the individual which the individual prepare within his own mind.
Visual: The individual might see things that do not exist even. The individual sees the objects that are no longer alive.
Delusions: Delusion of the client means that the individual thinks that heare beingcontrolled by the Television or through the different modes (Watkins et al., 2015). Client believes that some kind of famous character is controlling their mind and making them do several things. The types of delusions are Persecutory delusions: The client feels that they are being followed by someone and the unrealistic character will harm the individual.
Referential delusion: The individual feels that the television or public forms of the communication are giving some sort of the message that is only for him.
The negative symptoms are
The symptoms are called so because they describe behaviors and thoughts that the client used to have before the client becomes ill but presently the occurrence of the thoughts is quite lesser. There are several types of negative symptoms that areschizophrenia.
Absent-minded: The client remains absent from every work and experiences too much negativity from the symptoms. Whether it is good or bad it makes the client feel bad and emotionally depressed.
Reduction of speech: The client seems to be less interested in building up any of the conversations with anyone. Client loves to remain isolated from every person living beside them (Meyer, Nicholas&MacCabe, 2016).
Conclusion
From the above discussion on mental health essay, whether the symptoms of schizophrenia are positive or negative, it creates a huge change in the behavior and characteristics of the individual. The symptoms of schizophrenia seem to be quite similar in Angelo, he has been primarily diagnosed by the schizophrenia.
Mental health essay4
Introduction
The mental health essaybelow will be highlighting the potential role of the neurotransmitter in the development of schizophrenia. The mental illness is considered to occur due to the change in the mechanism of the neurotransmitter present inside the brain which works as chemical messengers. Client transmits the message between the neuron or from the neurons to muscles.
The role of the neurotransmitter in the development of schizophrenia
Neurotransmitter is a chemical substance that is released at the end of the nerve fibre helping the transformation of the signals across the junction of the signal neuron to the other neurons (Brooks et al., 2011). The neurotransmitters are likely to be affected by the occurrence of schizophrenia. The disorder causes multiple networking and neurotransmitter of the brain. Several biochemical changes have been considered to have occurred in the client with schizophrenia. The systems are most affected by schizophrenia the dopamine, glutamate, serotonin, and ?-aminobutyric acid (GABA). There is some kind of evidence that dopamine dysfunction leads to involvement in the pathology of schizophrenia. Dopamine is a chemical hormone belonging to the catecholamine and phenethylamine group. The function of dopamine is that it acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain of the individuals (Serrano-Saiz et al., 2017). The signaling of the dopamine led to motivating the behavior and motor control (Schizophrenia, 2014). Depending upon the functioning of the dopamine in the brain, the individual reactions like angry, crying, emotions, and feelings work. It seems that the dysfunctioning of the dopamine which acts as a neurotransmitter leads to the occurrence of the diseases related to the brain. Other than schizophrenia, a number of mental illnesses are associated with the dysfunction of the brain. With the deep study, it was found that the dopamine shows its abnormalities in the mesolimbic and prefrontal brain regions of the individual who is suffering from schizophrenia. Other than dopamine, the other glutamate, serotonin, and ?-aminobutyric acid (GABA) alterations also lead to the appearance of schizophrenia. Hence, several alterations in the neurotransmitters of Brian lead to cause the mental illness like schizophrenia.
Conclusion
From the above discussion on mental health essay, it can be concluded that their neurotransmitter of the brain plays an important role in the occurrence of mental illness like the schizophrenia. Alteration in any of the neurotransmitters like dopamine, glutamate, serotonin, and ?-aminobutyric acid (GABA) contribute to the occurrence of the mental illness. Hence, a huge level of change seems to have occurred in the brain signaling systems.
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